Supp Space Mod Chapter 5 - gocivilairpatrol.com

Aerospace Dimensions

CIVIL AIR PATROLUnited States Air Force AuxiliaryMaxwell Air Force Base, Alabama

CIVIL AIR PATROLUnited States Air Force AuxiliaryMaxwell Air Force Base, Alabama

Acknowledgments

As always, there are many people to thank for theirhelp with this project. Everybody on CAP Headquartersaerospace staff contributed. Thanks for your professional-ism and dedication to CAP and aerospace education.Judy Stone and Joan Emerson graciously supported theInternational Space Station and Astronomy sections andtheir expertise is greatly appreciated. I'd also like to espe-cially thank Peggy Greenlee for her wonderful graphic tal-ents and design work that added so much to the finalproduct.

I want to sincerely thank the X PRIZE Foundation,Analytical Graphics, Inc., and National Aeronautics andSpace Administration (NASA) for all of the support theygive CAP and aerospace education. These organizationsare leading the way into the future, a future that includesspace.

Thanks also go to Col Mike McNeely and CAP ColDrew Alexa for their expertise and dedication to CAP andto ensuring STK being properly included in this module. Aspecial thanks goes to CAP C/COL Andrew Shepherd fordedicating his time and considerable talents to this proj-ect.

Finally, I want to thank the leadership team at NationalHeadquarters CAP for their vision and support. For thisproject that team consisted of Judy Rice, Deputy Directorof Aerospace Education; Jim Mallett, Director, LeadershipDevelopment and Membership Services; and Colonel AlAllenback, Executive Director, CAP. Without their talents,understanding, and dedication to aerospace educationthis module could not have been produced.

Jeff MontgomeryProject Manager

Introduction

This module discusses current space information and is designed tobe a supplement to the six modules of Aerospace Dimensions. Thismodule provides the reader with an up-to-date look at some intriguingtopics that are very relevant in today's discussions of space. In a fewcases, this module elaborates on subjects mentioned in AerospaceDimensions modules 5 and 6. At other times, this module covers newand exciting topics that we hope you will enjoy. Studying this supple-mental module is not required for promotion within the cadet ranks ofCAP. This module simply consists of some of the hottest topics relat-ing to space and provides some of the latest information available.

The module is divided into five chapters covering five main sub-jects. We begin with X PRIZE, which is a $10 million space-travelcompetition to boost space tourism. Next, we discuss satellites andSatellite Tool Kit (STK). We devote time to orbits and trajectories andthe wonderful technology of STK. Then we discuss the history andcurrent status of the International Space Station. We approach theMars chapter in a similar way, including discussing the very latestexplorations to Mars. Finally, we conclude with a look at astronomyand the latest scientific discoveries in space. It is our hope that thesediverse subjects will give the reader a current and accurate perceptionof where America is today with regard to space, and a glimpse ofwhere we might be headed in the future.

We included some hands-on activities, which we hope you willenjoy and also find stimulating and educational. They are listed in theback of each chapter. We also included some links to web sites thatprovide more in-depth knowledge and sophistication.

Whether you study all five chapters or only a few, we hope you findthis module to be informative, interesting, educational, and worthy ofyour time.

Contents

The Preliminaries

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Learning Outcomes

National Standards

Chapter 1 X PRIZE

Chapter 2 Satellites

Chapter 3 International Space Station

Chapter 4 Mars

Chapter 5 Astronomy

Learning Outcomes

Chapter 1 - X PRIZE

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:- Define X PRIZE.- Describe the mission of X PRIZE.- State some reasons for why X PRIZE was created.- Identify some of the teams that are competing.- Explain how the prize can be won.- Describe some of the benefits to be derived from X PRIZE.

Chapter 2 - Satellites and Satellite Tool Kit

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:- Define an orbit.- Describe different orbits.- Discuss the Hubble Telescope's contributions.- Define STK.- Describe how STK can be used.- Apply STK technology to predict satellites passes.

Chapter 3 - International Space Station (ISS)

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:- Explain some of the research to be conducted on the ISS.- Describe the living conditions on ISS.- Name the nations involved with ISS.- State the purpose of ISS.- Describe the current status of ISS.- Estimate a timetable for completion.- Identify some uses for the ISS.

Chapter 4 - Mars

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:- State facts about Mars' environment.- Describe reasons for scientists' interest in Mars.- Identify earlier missions to Mars and what they accomplished.- Describe future missions to Mars.

Chapter 5 - Astronomy

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:- Identify some of the latest space discoveries.- Discuss any new planetary discoveries.- Discuss latest findings concerning stars.

Learning Outcomes(Continued)

National Science StandardsNational Science Standards

Chapter 1 - X PRIZE

Content Standard A: Science as InquiryAbilities necessary to do scientific inquiryUnderstanding about scientific inquiry

Content Standard E: Science and Technology Abilities of technological design Understandings about science and technology

Content Standard F: Science in Personal and Social PerspectivesScience and technology in local, national, and global challenges

Content Standard G: History and Nature of ScienceScience as a human endeavorNature of scientific knowledgeHistorical perspectives

Unifying Concepts and ProcessesEvidence, models, and explanationForm and function

Chapter 2 - Satellites and Satellite Tool Kit

Content Standard B: Physical ScienceMotions and forcesInteractions of energy and matter

Content Standard D: Earth and Space ScienceEnergy in the earth systemOrigin and evolution of the earth systemOrigin and evolution of the universe

Content Standard E: Science and Technology Abilities of technological design Understandings about science and technology


Content Standard G: History and Nature of ScienceScience as a human endeavorNature of scientific knowledge

Unifying Concepts and ProcessesEvidence, models, and explanationConstancy, change, and measurementForm and function

Chapter 3 - International Space Station

English Language Arts1. Reading for Perspective3. Evaluation Strategies4. Communication Skills5. Communication Strategies6. Applying Knowledge8. Developing Research Skills

12.. Applying Language Skills

ScienceContent Standard A: Science as Inquiry

Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiryUnderstandings about scientific inquiry

Content Standard B: Life ScienceBehavior of organisms

Content Standard E: Science and TechnologyUnderstandings about science and technology

Content Standard F: Science in Personal and Social PerspectivesPersonal and community healthScience and technology in local, national, and global challenges

Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science Science as a human endeavor



Social Studies 3. People, Places, and Environment4. Individual Development and Identity8. Science, Technology, and Society9. Global Connections

TechnologyStandard 8: Students will develop an understanding of the attributes

of design.Standard 11: Students will develop abilities to apply the design process.

Chapter 4 - Mars

ScienceContent Standard A: Science as Inquiry

Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiryUnderstanding about scientific inquiry

Content Standard B: Physical ScienceMotions and forces

Content Standard E: Science and TechnologyAbilities of technological designUnderstandings about science and technology

Content Standard G: History and Nature of ScienceNature of scientific knowledge Unifying Concepts and Processes

Evidence, models, and explanation

Chapter 5 - Astronomy

Content Standard A: Science as InquiryAbilities necessary to do scientific inquiryUnderstanding about scientific inquiry

Content Standard B: Physical ScienceStructure and properties of matterInteractions of energy and matter


Content Standard D: Earth and Space ScienceEnergy in the earth systemOrigin and evolution of the earth systemOrigin and evolution of the universe

Content Standard E: Science and TechnologyUnderstandings about science and technology


Content Standard G: History and Nature of ScienceNature of scientific knowledge

Unifying Concepts and ProcessesSystems, order, and organizationEvidence, models, and explanation Constancy, change, and measurementEvolution and equilibrium

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing this chapter, youshould be able to:

- Define X PRIZE.- Describe the mission of X PRIZE.- State some reasons for why X

PRIZE was created.- Identify some of the teams that are

competing.- Explain how the prize can be won.- Describe some of the benefits to

be derived from X PRIZE.

The excitement is building! The X PRIZE couldbe won in a few months! This chapter will discusswhat the X PRIZE is all about and describe a fewof the leading candidates to capture the prize.Much of this information comes from the X PRIZEwebsite.

MISSION AND PURPOSE

In 1995, Dr. Peter Diamandis established theX PRIZE Foundation with the assistance of ByronLichtenberg, Colette Bevis, and Gregg Maryniak.The Foundation was initially headquartered in

Rockville, Maryland but moved to St. Louis,Missouri in 1996.

The X PRIZE is a $10 million prize to jumpstartthe space tourism industry through competitionbetween the most talented entrepreneurs androcket experts in the world. The $10 million cashprize will be awarded to the first team that: a) pri-vately finances, builds and launches a spaceship,able to carry three people to 62.5 miles (100 kilo-meters)(the edge of space); b) returns safely toEarth; c) repeats the launch with the same shipwithin 2 weeks.

The X PRIZE competition follows in the foot-steps of more than 100 aviation incentive prizesoffered between 1905 and 1935, which createdtoday's multibillion-dollar air transport industry.The X PRIZE was inspired by the early aviationprizes of the 20th Century, primarily the spectacu-lar trans-Atlantic flight of Charles Lindbergh in TheSpirit of St. Louis, which captured the $25,000Orteig prize in 1927. Through a smaller, faster,better approach to aviation, Lindbergh and his

X PRIZE

1

The X PRIZE Board of Trustees

financial supporters, demonstrated that a smallprofessional team could outperform a large, gov-ernment-style effort.

Vice President and one of the trustees of the XPRIZE Foundation is Erik Lindbergh, a grandsonof Charles Lindbergh. To help support X PRIZEand to commemorate the 75th anniversary of hisgrandfather's flight, Erik recreated that famousflight over the Atlantic Ocean in May 2002. Eriksuccessfully flew nonstop from New York to Parisin 17 hours, 7 minutes in aLancair Columbia 300. Uponhis arrival in Paris, the pressasked him what he would donext, and Erik replied that helooked forward to flying intospace with X PRIZE.

Ever since man landed onthe moon, the general publichas waited for an opportunityto enjoy the space frontier ona first-hand basis. The XPRIZE Foundation is workingto make space travel possiblefor all. The spaceships thatcompete for the X PRIZE aredesigned to carry passengers. Some of the ben-efits from X PRIZE include:

- creation of a new generation of heroes; - inspiring and education students;- focusing public attention and investment

capital on this new business frontier;- challenging explorers and rocket scientists

around the world; and- vehicles built for the X PRIZE will eventually

serve four different industries; space tourism,low-cost satellite launching, same-day pack-age delivery, and rapid point-to-point pas-senger travel.The mission of the X PRIZE Foundation is to

create a future in which the general public will per-sonally participate in space travel and its benefits.The foundation seeks to do this by: organizingand implementing competitions to accelerate thedevelopment of low-cost spaceships for travel,tourism and commerce; creating programs whichallow the public to understand the benefits of low-cost space travel; and providing the public with theopportunity to directly experience the adventure ofspace travel.

X PRIZE believes that space flights should be

open to everyone, not just the ultra-rich. Theybelieve that commercial forces will bring spaceflights into a publicly affordable range. TheFoundation believes that the resources of spaceare the key to enhancing the wealth of all nationswhile preserving the environment of Earth.

They also believe that the risks involved inhuman space flight are far outweighed by the ben-efits to the participant and to humanity. X PRIZEwill use the utmost efforts to foster safety for par-

ticipants, observers andthe public in all X PRIZEactivities.

In October 2002, areport published by theU.S. Department of Com-merce's Office of SpaceCommercialization statedthat X PRIZE was a potentcatalyst for the sub-orbitalcommercial space trans-portation industry. Thereport goes on to say thatcommercial space trans-portation entrepreneurswere shifting their focus to

the sub-orbital market, which is the exact marketX PRIZE is working to develop.

As of March 2004, 27 teams, from seven dif-ferent countries, have entered the competition forthe X PRIZE. Here is a closer look at some ofthose teams and their innovative ideas for winningthe competition.

COMPETITIONScaled Composites

This team, headed by Burt Rutan, was the firstteam to register for the X PRIZE. Rutan is knownprincipally for designing and flying the Voyager,the first plane to fly around the world without refu-eling. Scaled Composites is located in Mojave,California.

Recently Rutan unveiled his future mannedspacecraft, a space-faring vehicle calledSpaceShipOne and the airborne launcher, theWhite Knight. This research vehicle was designedto investigate the feasibility of low cost sub-orbitalspace flight. The team's goal is to demonstratethat non-government manned space flight can be

Dr. Peter Diamandis and Erik Lindbergh

done at very low costs. Safety is of the utmostimportance, but low cost is also critical. This teamlooks forward to a future where ordinary people,for the cost of a luxury cruise, can rocket into thesky above the earth's atmosphere. Rutanbelieves that the X PRIZE competition has theability to help make private space flight and spacetourism a reality.

Rutan's plan involves flight in a spaceship, ini-tially attached to a turbojet launch aircraft whileclimbing for an hour to 50,000 feet, above 85% ofthe atmosphere. The spaceship then drops intogliding flight and fires its rocket motor while climb-ing steeply for more than a minute, reaching aspeed of 2,500 mph. The ship coasts up to 62miles altitude then falls back into the atmosphere.The coast and fall are under weightless conditionsfor more than three minutes. During weightless

flight, the spaceship converts to a high-drag con-figuration to allow a safe stable atmospheric entry.After the entry deceleration, which takes morethan a minute, the ship converts back to a conven-tional glider, allowing a leisurely 17-minute glidefrom 80,000 feet altitude down to a runway wherethe landing is made at light plane speeds.

On December 17, 2003, Scaled Compositestook a major step forward in the competition.They flew the first manned supersonic flight by anaircraft developed by a private, non-governmenteffort. SpaceShipOne test pilot Brian Binnie flewto an altitude of 68,000 feet. During the landing,the left landing gear received minor damage, butno one was hurt.

To learn more about Scaled Composites clickon www.scaled.com.

Starchaser Industries

Steve Bennett, Director of the SpaceTechnology Laboratory, Salford University,England, began Starchaser as an experimentalrocket test program in 1992. In 1996, the teamsuccessfully launched the largest private civilian

rocket (21 ft) ever built and flown in Europe. In1997, they entered the X PRIZE competition.

In 1999, Bennett unveiled his next generationrocket and X PRIZE entry, Thunderbird. This wasa full-scale mockup at the time, but he has sinceperformed many tests. The flight sequence for theThunderbird begins with an ascent in a verticalorientation using solid boosters and liquid rocketengines. At higher altitudes the main liquid oxy-gen/kerosene rocket engine will take over, becom-ing the major propulsive force in the now rarefiedatmosphere. Acceleration will be kept below 3G'sfor the comfort of the passengers. Following mainengine cutoff the vehicle will continue to coast onup to an apogee exceeding 62 miles where theoccupants will experience several minutes ofmicrogravity.

Starchaser believes the space frontier is about

to open up. Experts are predicting that a globalspace tourism industry worth $10 billion will be thebig business of the early 21st century. The oper-ation of low cost launchers for micro satelliteapplications and the concept of space tourism, inthe form of short sub-orbital pleasure flights arecertainly possible, and Starchaser thinks quiteviable.

On December 12, 2003, Starchaser unveiledits new Thunderstar X PRIZE competition vehicledesign.

To learn more about Starchaser Industriesclick on www.starchaser.co.uk.

The da Vinci Project

The da Vinci Project is located in Toronto, Ontario,Canada and is a team of about 30 volunteers fromCanada's aerospace industry, led by BrianFeeney. It is Canada's first entry in the X PRIZEcompetition.

The da Vinci Project will launch its spacecraft(Wild Fire) from the world's largest helium balloon.

SpaceShipOne Aboard the White Knight Launcher

Thunderbird

The 3,270 kg rocket will be tethered 720 metersbelow the balloon and lifted over the course of anhour to an altitude of 80,000 feet. The 10, 000pound thrust, liquid oxygen, and keroseneengines will fire the first stage and the rocket willfly an initial angular trajectory to clear the balloon.The spacecraft then will transition to vertical flightto its apogee of 120 km in space. The rocket'smaximum speed on both its ascent and re-entry isMach 4, or 4,250 kph, or 2650 mph. An innova-tive ballute will protect and stabilize the rocket onre-entry. A flyable parachute will be deployed at25,000 feet and the rocket will descend undercontrol, probably guided by GPS, to a predeter-mined landing zone.

The Wildfire rocket's structure is a combinationof a 6-point truss work integrated to a carbon fiberaeroshell. The spherical crew capsule is pressur-ized to one atmosphere and oval windows wraparound it for a spectacular view. The pilot's seatis centered with the two remaining seats angled tothe side. Flight control is achieved through a pro-grammable FAA approved autopilot from a turbineclass of aircraft.

To learn more about The da Vinci Projectclick on www.davinciproject.com.

Kelly Space & Technology (KST)

KST is an engineering design and technologydevelopment company located in San Bernardino,California. KST joined with Vought AircraftIndustries for the purpose of developing a familyof low cost, reusable, commercial sub-orbital and

orbital launch vehicles.KST named their spacecraft Astroliner, and

they believe it will provide low-cost, reliableaccess to space. Astroliner will be tow-launchedby a Boeing 747 from a conventional runway to itslaunch altitude. The Astroliner is reusable. It hasa fully reusable first stage, which is the mostexpensive part of the vehicle.Then, the Astroliner's second stage is expend-able, which eliminates the weight of reentry insu-lation and recovery systems.

In the last few years, NASA has awarded KSTseveral million dollars. KST was awarded a con-tract to perform a space transportation architec-ture study, and the following year was awarded acontract for a follow-up study that focused on

developing space transportation through the year2030.

To learn more about Kelly Space & Technologyclick on www.kellyspace.com.

Interorbital Systems (IOS)

Interorbital is a privately funded aerospacecorporation based in Mojave, California, thatdevelops, manufactures, and tests liquid rocketengines, space launch vehicles, and spacecraft.IOS brings the first woman-owned team and firstwoman pilot into the X PRIZE competition. WallyFunk, one of the original "Mercury 13" femaleastronaut trainees in the early 1960s will pilot theSOLARIS X in the X PRIZE competition.

SOLARIS X is a liquid-propelled, vertical take-off/horizontal landing vehicle that will become theflagship of IOS' future sub-orbital space tourismoperations. IOS is presently engaged in the

Wild Fire Spacecraft, right, will be launched by theworld’s largest helium balloon, left.

The Astroliner is towed by a Boeing 747.

development of its Neptune-Solaris OrbitalSpaceliner, a two-stage manned reusable orbitallauncher. The orbiter upper stage in this configu-ration is the SOLARIS X rocket plane.

Randa Milliron, CEO and co-founder of IOS isconfident of the revenue potential of their enter-prise and has started to sell advance purchasetickets for the sub-orbital flights on eBay, underthe search title of "Ride a Rocket."

To learn more about Interorbital Systems clickon www.interorbital.com.

Vanguard Spacecraft

Vanguard is located in Bridgewater,Massachusetts. The ship's name is Eagle. TheVanguard series launch vehicle, the VanguardEagle, consists of two booster stages and space-craft. The booster stages include fuel tank hous-ing and solid fuel booster housings. TheVanguard Eagle follows a traditional vertical take-off and ballistic reentry mission plan. The flightbegins with a vertical launch and a crew of four.The first stage will provide a primary lift-off thrust

for the first 50 kilometers. The second stage willcarry the Eagle to an altitude of 75 kilometerswhere the spacecraft will separate stages andreturn to Earth via parachute. After the boosterfuel is exhausted, the booster stages separate,and the capsule coasts to an altitude of 100 kilo-meters.

No web site is available at this time.

IL Aerospace Technologies (ILAT)

IL Aerospace is located in Zichron Ya'akov,Israel. Their spacecraft is called the Negev 5, andit is a self-sufficient reusable sub-orbital space

vehicle capable of being launched and recoveredanywhere in the world from land or sea without theneed of runways, assist aircraft, costly installa-tions or complicated procedures. The vehicle willbe a pressurized 3-person habitat equipped withall the essential instrumentation for flight, naviga-tion, communications and life-support. The vehi-cle will be constructed employing lightweight air-craft-grade alloys and composite materials, whilethe propulsion system will utilize the latest hybridrocket technology. The Negev 5 will be launchedfrom ground level using ILAT's own fully reusableVanguard Eagle

Negev 5

High Altitude Launch Platform. The conceptallows the vehicle a free ride on a large stratos-pheric balloon filled with helium to its intendedrocket launch altitude of 82,000 feet above meansea level. Most of the atmospheric drag will beovercome while saving precious fuel.


Suborbital Corporation

Suborbital is the only Russian team in compe-tition for the X PRIZE. Suborbital is located inMoscow, Russia. The name of the spaceship isCosmopolis XXI. This spaceship is a rocket-pow-ered ship, which rides to a high altitude on a M55altitude aircraft. Separation occurs at 17 kilome-ters. Suborbital plans to initially rent the M55 air-

craft for prototype and testing flights and theneventually buy a copy for regular sub-orbital flightoperations.

The interior of the spaceship is pressurized, but

the passengers are expected to wear pressuresuites as a backup. Suborbital plans to operate inRussia, but once the system is proven, they hopeto operate around the world.

The team leader is Sergey Kostenko, and hisreason for founding the corporation was to openthe space tourism market utilizing Russian talentand technology.


These are just a few of the teams competingfor the X PRIZE. I hope this gives you an aware-ness of how some of the teams are striving toachieve the X PRIZE. To find out more about theteams click on www.xprize.org. Some of theteams are being secretive, and it may be hard tofind more information on them, but all of the teamsare listed on the X PRIZE web site.

A 2002 report published by the U.S.Department of Commerce's Office of SpaceCommercialization called the X PRIZE a potentialcatalyst for the sub-orbital commercial spacetransportation industry. Certainly the team thatwins the X PRIZE will be providing a major steptoward an orbital reusable launch industry.

The momentum is progressing. Some of theteams' tests have gone very well, and expertsbelieve a team will win the X PRIZE in 2004.Space travel for the average citizen may not be faroff. Click on the X PRIZE website frequently tokeep current on the latest developments.

Cosmopolis XXI

Activity OneTHE CLASSIC "EGG-DROP" ACTIVITY

You've probably heard all about this classicegg activity -- or seen it in action! The idea behindthe "Egg Drop" is to create a "package" that willprotect a raw egg when it's dropped from a heightof 8 feet (or whatever height you decide). You can use many different materials in fashioninga protective cushion for your egg. You can workindividually or with someone to create your eggcontainers. Students will use everything from bub-

ble wrap and foam peanuts to peanut butter. Iheard of a student who packed an egg in peanutbutter. It survived the fall, but it broke apart whenthe student tried to pry it out of jar. Some studentsmight even attach parachutes to the packaging ifyou let them.

Once constructed, you are ready to "drop"your egg from the appointed height. (Want a realtest? Drop your egg from a third-story window!) One helpful hint, Spread a plastic tarp over thespot where eggs will land to protect the floor orground. Of course you can experiment as oftenas you want with different protective cushions.

Activity Section

Satellites andSatellite Tool Kit

2

In 1957, the Russians

launched Sputnik, the first

artificial (manmade) satellite.

Since then, scientists have

used the term satellite for any

object that orbits the Earth,

natural or artificial. The moon

is the Earth's only natural

satellite. So, all the rest of the

satellites are manmade. In this

chapter, we will only discuss

artificial satellites and their

orbits.

A few months after Sputnik,

the United States launched

Explorer 1, America's first

satellite. Now thousands of

satellites are orbiting Earth.

Satellites are designed with a

purpose. They have a mis-

sion to perform. For instance, their purpose might

be communication, navigation, observation or sci-

entific. These are four broad categories of pur-

poses, which all involve satellites collecting infor-

mation and relaying it back to Earth.

Satellites are gathering and transmitting

amazing information. Technology has become so

sophisticated. Communications satell ites

(COMSATs) h a v e b e e n around since 1958,

and their uses

have grown

tremendously.

COMSATs still

transmit for

radios and televi-

sions, but they

also transmit for

the internet and

cellular phones.

Additionally, they

provide com-

mand and con-

trol for military forces, and they provide links to

other spacecraft.

About thirty years ago, the US Air Force, in

association with the other branches of service,

created a new global

navigation system called

NAVSTAR Global Posi-

tioning System (GPS).

This system provides

navigation and timing

information to both civil-

ian and military users

worldwide. Position

velocity, and time can be

precisely determined.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing this chapter, you

should be able to:

- Define an orbit.

- Describe different orbits.

- Discuss the Hubble Telescope's

contributions.

- Define STK.

- Describe how STK can be used.

- Apply STK technology to predict

satellite passes.

Sputnik (1957)

Explorer I (1958)

Artists rendering of an AdvancedCommunication Technology

Satellite

Navstar

satellites give precise reference points and contin-

uously broadcast position and time data. The

GPS satellites calculate a three-dimensional posi-

tion, which is given in latitude, longitude, and alti-

tude. GPS is rapidly replacing all other naviga-

tional systems. Virtually all ships and airlines use

GPS technology and trucking fleets and law

enforcement agencies use it. Search and rescue

teams, military, and even hunters and hikers use

GPS.

A type of observation satellite is the weather

satellite. Weather satellites have become very

important. They add tremendously to the accura-

cy of weather forecasts. Every weather station

uses satellites. Turn on any news channel weath-

er report and they will mention what the satellites

are depicting. Of course, the weather satellites

are particularly helpful with severe storms and

hurricanes.

Another type of observation satellite is the

multi-spectrum-imaging satellite; an example of

this is the Landsat series. Landsats locate natural

resources and monitor other conditions on the

Earth's surface.

Scientific satellites orbit to gain information,

and there are literally hundreds of examples we

could discuss, but only one will be mentioned

before going into a discussion of orbits. This last

example is the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble

was launched in 1990, and thanks to over 90

hours of on-orbit service calls by Space Shuttle

astronauts, Hubble continues to be a state-of-the-

art model.

Hubble orbits at 600 kilometers or 375 miles

above Earth, working around the clock to unlock

the secrets of the universe. It uses excellent point-

ing precision, powerful optics, and modern, up to

date instruments to provide stunning views of the

universe that cannot be duplicated using ground-

based telescopes or other satellites.

Hubble travels at 5 miles per second or 18,000

miles per hour. A trip from Los Angeles to New

York takes 10 minutes. Hubble completes one full

orbit every 97 minutes. In an average orbit,

Hubble uses about the same amount of energy as

twenty-four 100-watt light bulbs. To locate Hubble

click on: http://hubble.nasa.gov and go to Hubble

Operations and get an instantaneous reading.

Hubble was designed to last 20 years, so it only

has a few years left. However, Hubble has given

scientists the best pictures ever received about

space. Hubble has taken over 300,000 separate

observations and has observed more than 25,000

astronomical targets. The latest astronomical find-

ings are discussed in Chapter 5, and in most

cases those discoveries can be credited to the

Hubble telescope.

So, we have thousands of satellites in space.

What is keeping them from bumping into each

other? Well, first of all space is a very vast place,

Landsats Orbit

The Hubble Space Telescope

Intense, cold cloud tops,

High altitude

Weak, Warm cloud top,

low altitude

cloud free, very warm

surface temperature

and there is plenty of open space where satellites

haven't gone yet. And secondly, these thousands

of satellites are on different orbits around the

Earth. An orbit is defined as a path described by

one body in its revolution about another body.

Ancient astronomers determined that the

motion of celestial bodies was not random. They

studied the motion and measured the movement

of planets. In 1611, German astronomer

Johannes Kepler discovered several objects mov-

ing around Jupiter. From this, Kepler created rules

of motion for planets, but all celestial bodies,

including artificial satellites obey them.

Kepler's First Law states: The orbit of each

planet is an ellipse, with the sun at the focus. In

an elliptical orbit, the satellite's altitude, velocity

and speed are not constant. Therefore, the shape

varies. When orbital variations in speed are small,

the orbit shape is nearly circular, but when the

speed variations increase, the orbit becomes

more elliptical.

During an orbit, the orbiting object reaches a

high point and a low point. Its highest point is

called the apogee, and its lowest point is called its

perigee. The apogee represents the point where

the object is the farthest away from the body being

orbited. The perigee represents the point where

the object is the closest to the body being orbited.

Gravity gives the orbit its shape. An example

of a bullet fired from a gun helps to explain this.

As the bullet is traveling in a straight line, gravity

pulls the bullet toward the center of the earth. The

combination of the bullet's speed and gravity cre-

ate a curved flight path. The curvature of the bul-

let's path can be changed by adjusting the bullet's

speed. Matching the curve of the flight path to the

curve of a planet is the basic concept of an orbit.

Orbits have different ranges of altitudes: low,

high, and medium. Low earth orbits (LEOs) are

below 300 miles. The International Space Station

moves in a low earth orbit at about 250 miles

above Earth, and the Space Shuttle flies in low

earth orbit. A high earth orbit (HEO) is above

23,000 miles. Geostationary or geosynchronous

orbits are high earth orbits. Most communication

satellites and some weather satellites are found

here. Also some astronomy satellites are found in

high earth orbit. Medium earth orbits (MEOs) are

in between the low and high orbits. This category

ranges from orbits of a few hundred miles to a few

thousand miles. Some communication and telecom-

munication satellites operate in medium earth orbit.

Also, the Hubble Space Telescope moves in a medi-

um orbit at about 375 miles above Earth.

Types of Orbits

Sunsynchronous

This orbit synchronizes the satellite's orbit with

the Earth's orbit around the sun. The light from

the sun forms an angle with the satellite's orbital

plane. In this orbit, this plane turns as the Earth

moves around the sun. The turning maintains a

constant angle between the light from the sun and

the orbit plane creating the same lighting condi-

tions for the satellite to view year around.

Sunsynchronous orbits are used by earth obser-

vation and weather satellites.

Geosynchronous

In this orbit, the rotation of the satellite is syn-

chronous with the rotation of the Earth. The satel-

lite's period is 23 hours and 56 minutes, the same

time as one revolution of the Earth. When the

inclination of a geosynchronous orbit is zero

degrees, the satellite appears to remain over the

Space debris

Apogee Perigee

same spot on the equator for the entire orbit and

is refered to as a geostationary orbit.

Remember, both the satellite and the spot on the

equator are revolving around the axis of the

Earth. From the ground, a satellite in this orbit

appears stationary in the sky. The high altitude

of this orbit gives a satellite a large field of view,

and the stationary appearance makes it easy to

find and aim a radio antenna at the satellite.

These two features make the geostationary orbit

very useful to communication satellites.

Molniya

This is a highly elliptical and highly inclined

orbit. Molniya is the Russian word for orbit and

the former Soviet Union first used this type of

orbit as an alternative to a geosynchronous orbit

for communication satellites. The satellite in a

highly elliptical orbit moves slowly at apogee

and then speeds up near perigee. From the

ground, the satellite appears to dwell around the

apogee making it easier to locate and track the

satellite. The high inclination also gives the

satellite a good field of view of the polar regions

of the Earth.

Circular - an orbit that maintains a virtually con-

stant altitude above the Earth's surface.

Elliptical - any closed orbit that is not circular.

All elliptical orbits around Earth have an apogee

and a perigee.

Equatorial - The satellite travels from west to

east over the Earth's equator. Some satellite

orbits incline to the Equator a certain number of

degrees.

Now, let's put some of this information you

have learned to more practical use. Let's talk

about Satellite Tool Kit and some of the amazing

applications it provides.

SSAATELLITETELLITE TTOOLOOL KKITIT

(STK)(STK)

Satellite Tool Kit, developed by Analytical

Graphics, Inc. (AGI), is the leading commercial

off-the-shelf software solution for the aerospace

industry. As the industry standard, AGI's soft-

ware supports end-to-end satellite systems from

mission planning through operations. Basic

applications include tracking satellite locations,

determining when they have access to certain

areas, and analyzing what satellites can see at

any point in time.

STK makes it easy to analyze complex land,

sea, air, and space scenarios and determine

optimal solutions. It provides the ability to pres-

ent results in graphical and text formats for easy

interpretation and analysis. It is used by tens of

thousands of professionals worldwide. STK is

used by over 70 major universities, including the

U.S. Air Force Academy, NASA, CIA, and all

branches of the military, government and com-

mercial operations working in space.

STK provides the analytical engine to calcu-

late data and display multiple 2-D maps that

visualize various time-dependent information for

satellites and other space-related objects such

as launch vehicles, missiles, and aircraft. STK's

core capabilities include generation of position

and attitude data, acquisition times, and sensor

coverage analysis for any of the objects mod-

eled in the STK environment. The integrated

STK software provides tools to support all

aspects of the aerospace community, ranging

from system design and concept to real-time

operations.

To pique your interest a little we have includ-

ed a couple of exercises to demonstrate some of

STK's basic capabilities. We hope you will enjoy

the exercises and visit the STK website. In

order to perform these STK scenarios and activ-

ities, you you will need a STK 6.2 disk. A copy of

this disk can be obtained from your CAP wing

Director of Aerospace Education (DAE).Your

wing DAE has a few copies that are available to

borrow. Please use the disk, learn about STK,

and then return it to your DAE so others can also

benefit from the software program.

Before you begin your journey into the won-

derful world of STK, CAP/AE would like to thank

a few very important people for making this jour-

ney possible. First, we would like to thank CAP

Col. Drew Alexa for his tireless efforts to bring

this marvelous educational tool to CAP. It was

his vision and dedication that made it happen.

We'd like to thank CAP Lt. Col. Mike McNeely for

developing the initial scenarios that were used

as the foundation for changing these current

scenarios to the STK 6.2 format. Mike contin-

ues to be a strong advocate for space and STK

and presents STK seminars in many CAP set-

tings. Finally, we'd like to thank Paul Graziani,

President and CEO of Analytical Graphics, Inc,

makers of STK, for his generosity and strong

partnership with CAP. He and his terrific staff

continue their outstanding support to CAP.

Thanks to all of you for bring this wonderful edu-

cational opportunity to our cadets.

For learning more about STK and AGI go to

www.stk.com or www.agi.com.

STKScenario One

An important part of Orbital Mechanics is

orbital geometry. Included in this section are four

activities describing different concepts in orbital

geometry: semi-major axis, eccentricity, inclina-

tion and perigee. STK can help you understand

these concepts. We hope you enjoy the following

scenarios.

This portion of the lesson plan illustrates the

satellite concepts you just learned about. To do

this, you will run six self-guided scenarios using

STK/VO software. Each scenario will help you

visualize the characteristics associated with the

six orbital elements. As you recall, the major

concepts were: (1) The six classical elements

uniquely characterize an orbit. (2) The classical

elements have an influence on the satellite ground

track pattern. The instructions below are a step-

by-step guide to help you view and understand

the scenarios.

Scenario One helps you visualize the semi-

major axis influences on an orbit. Specifically:

1. Changes in the semi-major axis change the alti-

tude of an orbit.

2. Changes in the semi-major axis alter the satel-

lite's field of view (FOV).

3. Changes in the semi-major axis alter the satel-

lite's geographic point location on a flat map.

1. Execute Scenario One by selecting

File/Open/LocalDiskC/Scenario\Lesson3\

axisR\semi-major_axisR.sc

- Select View (3rd button, top row) then select

New 3D Graphics Window from the drop down

menu.

-Enlarge the screen and rotate the earth until

Korea is centered on the earth by placing the cur-

sor on the globe and left clicking the mouse.

-Move the mouse to the right or left to orient the

Laser communication link model analyses wide-band satellite crosslinks in visible near-infrared,and infrared wavelengths.

globe. Depicted in BLUE is a LEO satellite with a

6700 km semi-major axis.

2. Select START. (4th blue button, row 3)

-Observe the speed of the satellite. The semi-

major axis determines the altitude, which in turn

determines how long it takes the satellite to com-

plete an orbit. (Note: You may slow down or

speed up the motion of the satellite by using the

the 6th and 7th blue button, row 3.)

3. Select PAUSE (3rd blue button, row 3)

-The next few steps will enable you to change

the semi-major axis and observe the effects.

4. In the object browser window, highlight LEO. If

you do not see the object browser window, select

View (3rd button, row 1) then select Object

Browser from the drop-down menu. Right click

the mouse and select copy. Right click again and

select paste. A LEO1 file will appear. Highlight

LEO1 and then right click the mouse. Select

rename from the drop-down menu. LEO 1 will be

highlighted in BLUE and the cursor will flash.

Now type in MEO and then select OK.

5. Highlight MEO, left click the mouse and select

PROPERTIES and then 2D GRAPHICS. Select

ATTRIBUTES.

6. Change the BLUE color to MAGENTA. Select

APPLY and OK.

7. In the OBJECT BROWSER window, highlight

the MEO SENSOR 1. Right click the mouse and

select PROPERTIES and then BASIC and then

DEFINITION. Change the outer half angle param-

eter to 15.0 degrees. This action is required to

ensure the satellite's FOV is an appropriate size

for the visual representation. Select APPLY and

OK.

8. In the OBJECT BROWSER once again, high-

light MEO. Right click the mouse and select

PROPERTIES and then BASIC. Displayed are all

the basic orbital elements necessary to define an

orbit. Currently the MEO orbital elements are a

carbon copy of the LEO orbital data.

9. Now change the semi-major axis to 20372 km.

This value reflects an appropriate MEO altitude.

Next select 2D GRAPHICS and then select

ATTRIBUTES. Change the color from BLUE to

MAGENTA.

10. Select APPLY and OK.

11 Select RESET. (You can decrease the size of

the globe to show both orbits by placing the cursor

on the globe, left click the mouse and move it for-

ward. Moving the mouse backward will enlarge

the globe.) Select RESET.

12. Select START.

In addition to the LEO, the MEO is depicted in

MAGENTA. Compare the relative speeds of each

orbit. The LEO satellite travels faster than the

MEO satellite because the LEO semi-major axis is

smaller. Consequently, the smaller the semi-major

axis, the lower the altitude and the shorter orbital

period.

13. At time 15:03, select PAUSE.

Also note that the semi-major axis (altitude) influ-

ences the field of view size (FOV). The MEO

satellite FOV is comparatively larger than the LEO

satellite FOV.

14. Select the 2D GRAPHICS View.

The 2D view is a mercator projection map.

Basically it is the globe projected on a flat map.

The unique characteristic of a mercator projection

is that the distance between latitude lines is equal,

making it easy to perform any calculations. The

2D view of the Earth is used to show the satellite's

orbit projected over geographic areas. The semi-

major axis affects the ground track in a few ways.

First, it shows the speed of a satellite. Note how

quickly the LEO satellite, depicted in BLUE,

moves across its track compared to the MEO

satellite. Second, it determines the ground track

repeating pattern. Note the LEO satellite moves

slightly west with each pass, giving the appear-

ance of successive ground tracks.

15. Select PAUSE.

16. Review the scenario as often as necessary.

Repeats steps 9-14 to change the value of the

semi-major axis again to different altitudes. Once

complete with the scenario, select PAUSE.

17. View the scenario as often as needed. Close

out. Do not save the file.

STKScenario Two

Scenario two helps you visualize how eccen-

tricity affects the shape of the orbit. Specifically:

(1) changes to the eccentricity value from zero to

one changes an orbit from circular to eccentric; (2)

the eccentricity values describes the symmetry of

the orbit. To initiate the scenario, complete the fol-

lowing steps:

1.File\Open\LocalDiskC\Scenario\Lesson3\

eccentricityR\eccentricityR.sc If you forget how

to complete a step, refer back to scenario one for

step by step instructions.

2. Select VIEW\NEW 3D GRAPHICS. Enlarge the

screen.

3. Orient the globe so the African continent is at

the nine o'clock position. Then select START.

Depicted in RED is the MEO1 orbit. The eccentric-

ity value is 0.01, representing a circular orbit.

Because the orbit is circular, the earth is at the

center of the orbit. (Zoom allows you to see the

entire orbit.)

4. The next few steps will enable you to change

the eccentricity value to a 0.5 value.

5. Highlight MEO_1 in the OBJECT BROWSER

screen.

6. Right click the mouse and select COPY.

7. Right click again and select PASTE. A MEO_2

file will appear.

8. Highlight MEO_2 and right click the mouse.

Select PROPERTIES\ 2D GRAPHICS\

ATTRIBUTES. Change the color to MAGENTA.

9. Select BASIC\ORBIT.

Displayed are all the basic orbital elements neces-

sary to define an orbit.

Currently, the MEO_2 orbit has the same orbital

data as MEO_1.

10. Change the eccentricity value to 0.5.

11. Select APPLY and then OK.

12. Select RESET, then START.

The MAGENTA orbit depicting an eccentricity

value of .5 represents an elongated orbit.

Compare the two orbits. For the MEO_2 orbit, the

earth is no longer in the center of the orbit, illus-

trating its elongated orbit.

13. The remaining steps will change the eccentric-

ity value from .5 to .65.

14. Select the MEO_1 icon in the OBJECT

BROWSER screen.

15. Right click and select EDIT\COPY. Right click

and select PASTE. A MEO_3 will appear.

16. Highlight MEO_3, right click and select

PROPERTIES\2DGRAPHICS\ATTRIBUTES.

Change the color RED to DARK SEA GREEN.

17. Select BASIC\ORBIT.

18. Change the Eccentricity value from 0.0 to

0.65.

19. Select APPLY and then OK.

20. Select RESET. Then START.

The DARK SEA GREEN orbit represents the

highly eccentric orbit. Observe how elongated the

orbit is compared to the previous orbits.

21. Select the 2D map and select RESET.

Eccentricity determines a ground track's symme-

try. In turn, it defines how much ground will be

covered in a period of time throughout the orbit.

For example, if the eccentricity parameter equals

zero, a satellite will sweep over equal areas in

equal time. In contrast, if the eccentricity parame-

ter is close to one, the satellite will dwell over the

apogee point. Thus, the area covered in this por-

tion of the orbit is small. Conversely, the satellite

will move through its perigee point rapidly and

cover more surface area in an equal amount of

time.

22. Select START.

23. At time 2 Jan 00:10, all three satellites will be

in view.

The earth map shows each satellite's ground track

for one complete pass, specifically, pass number

three. The MEO_1 orbit will sweep out an equal

area in equal time. However, MEO_3, represent-

ing the highly eccentric orbit will initially move out

quickly until its apogee point, where it dwells for a

long time over one geographic spot, approximate-

ly 20 degrees longitude.

24. At time 2 Jan 08:05 select PAUSE.

All satellites have completed one pass and are in

the same approximate position to each other.

Each orbit completes its pass in the same amount

of time. Only the speed during the orbit varies for

the more eccentric orbit.

25. Review the scenario as often as needed.

Close out by selecting FILE/CLOSE. Do not save

the file.

STK

Scenario Three

Scenario three helps you visualize how the

inclination affects the orientation of the orbit.

Specifically: (1) changes to the inclination value

changes the tilt of an orbit from the equatorial

plane; (2) from a flat perspective, the extreme

northern and southern latitudes a satellite will

cover equates to the inclination value. For exam-

ple, if a satellite's inclination is 28.5 degrees, it will

travel no further north than 28.5 degrees north lat-

itude and no further south than 28.5 degrees

south latitude.

This scenario will illustrate these concepts by

having you make changes to the inclination value.

To initiate the activity, complete the following

steps:

1.File\Open\LocalDiskC\Scenario\Lesson3\

inclinationR\ inclinationR.sc. If you forget how

to complete a procedure, refer to scenario 1 for

instructions.

2. Select VIEW/3D GRAPHICS and maximize the

window.

3. Orient the globe so that the African continent is

at nine o'clock position.

4. Zoom out on the globe until the word LEO_1 is

visible.

You are viewing a LEO orbit at a zero inclination.

Observe its relation to an imaginary equatorial

line. The LEO_1 satellite, having a zero inclina-

tion, parallels the equator. It does not tilt away

from the equator.

5. The next few steps will enable you to change

the inclination value.


the LEO_1 icon. Right click and select COPY.

7. Right click again and select PASTE. LEO_2 will

appear. Change the name to LEO_35.

8. Highlight LEO_35. Right click and select

PROPERTIES\2DGRAPHIC/ATTRIBUTES.

Change the color RED to MAGENTA.

9. Select BASIC\ORBIT. This orbit tab represents

all the parameters required to define the orbit.

Currently, the LEO_35 parameters are the same

as LEO_1.

10. Change the inclination value to 35.0

DEGREES.

11. Select APPLY, then OK.

12. Under the LEO_1 icon in the OBJECT

BROWSER window, highlight SENSOR1.

13. Right click and select PROPERTIES\2D

GRAPHIC\ATTRIBUTES. Change the color from

RED to MEDIUM ORCHID.


15. Toggle to the 2D map.

16. Select RESET, then START.

By observation, you can view the 35-degree tilt of

the orbit with respect to the imaginary equatorial

line or the LEO_1 orbit. As LEO_35 travels in its

orbit, it is able to view 35 degrees above and

below the LEO_1 orbit.

17. Select PAUSE.

18. The next few steps will enable you to compare

a highly inclined orbit to the previous two orbits.


LEO_35.

20. Right click and select COPY.

21. Right click again and select PASTE. LEO_2

will appear. Change the name to LEO_80.

22. Highlight LEO_80. Right click and select


Change the color to DARK SEA GREEN.

23. Select BASIC\ORBIT. The orbit tab is dis-

played. Presently, the orbital parameters reflect

the same values as the LEO_35.

24. To define a highly inclined orbit, change the

inclination value to 80.0 degrees.


26. Highlight SENSOR1 under the LEO_80 icon.

Right click and select PROPERTIES\

2DGRAPHICS\ATTRIBUTES. Change the color

to WHITE.


28. Select the 3D GRAPHICS map and select

RESET.

In view are all three orbits. The LEO_80 orbit is

tilted 80 degrees from the equator. It is nearly per-

pendicular to the equator and nearly parallels the

north and south poles. The advantage to a highly

inclined orbit is the satellite will travel over higher

latitudes.

29. Select START.

Observe that the distance north and south of the

equator that a satellite can cover is a function of

orbital inclination. The greater a satellite's orbital

inclination, the greater the satellite's coverage of

northerly and southerly latitudes.

30. Select PAUSE.

31. Select the 2D map, then select RESET.

The map illustrates the concept of how inclination

bounds the satellite's ground track to its equiva-

lent inclination value. Simply stated, it shows how

much area above and below the equator the satel-

lite views.

32. Select START.

In this scenario, LEO_1, depicted in RED has a

zero inclination. Thus, it will remain at the equa-

tor, at zero degrees latitude. By comparison, the

LEO_35 satellite, depicted in MAGENTA, will trav-

el north to 35 degrees and then to 35 degrees

south, equivalent to it's inclination value. Finally,

the LEO_80 illustrates that the ground track will

cover latitudes up to 80 degrees north and south.

33. Select PAUSE.

34. View the scenario as often as needed. Close

out FILE/CLOSE. Do not save the file.

STKScenario Four

Scenario four helps you visualize the influ-

ences of argument of perigee on an orbit.

Specifically, the lesson addresses the primary

influence of perigee point placement. To help visu-

alize this concept you will make changes to a

HEO satellite's argument of perigee. To run the

scenario complete the following steps:

1. File\Open\LocalDiskC\Scenario\Lesson3\

argperigee\ArgperigeeR.sc. If you forget how to

do a procedure, please refer to scenario one for

instructions.

2. Select VIEW\NEW 3D GRAPHIC map.

Maximize the window.

3. Orient the globe so that the North American

continent is centered on your screen.

4. Zoom out until three-fourths of an orbit is in

view.

5. Displayed is a HEO orbit.

The argument of perigee value is 270 degrees,

resulting in a perigee point in the southern hemi-

sphere. By definition, the argument of perigee is

measured from the ascending node to the perigee

point in the direction of satellite motion. Now look

at your display and imagine a horizontal line

around the center of the earth. This line repre-

sents the equator. The point at which that line

crosses the orbit is the ascending node. From the

ascending node, use a pointer and trace a move-

ment around the orbit 270 degrees in a counter

clockwise direction. Your pointer is now at the

southern point in the orbit, representing the

perigee point.

6. Select START. The satellite will travel fastest at

its perigee point. Thus the South Pole region will

have very little coverage.

7. The next few steps will have you change the

argument of perigee value.


HEO270.

9. Right click and select COPY.

10. Right click again and select PASTE. A HEO1

will appear. Change the name to HEO90.

11. Highlight HEO90, right click and select


Change the color from RED to MAGENTA.


13. Highlight SENSOR1. Right click and select

PROPERTIES\2D GRAPHICS\ATTRIBUTES.

Change the color to HOT PINK. Select APPLY,

then OK.

14. Highlight HEO90, right click and select

PROPERTIES\BASIC/ORBIT. The orbit tab dis-

plays all the parameters defining this orbit.

However the HEO90 orbit is a duplicate of the

HEO270.

15. Change the Argument of Perigee value to 90

degrees. Observe the effects when you change

the argument of perigee.

16. Select APPLY, then OK.

17. Reset, then select START.

In comparing the two orbits, the perigee points are

directly opposite from each other. The MAGENTA

orbit, represents a satellite with a 90 degree argu-

ment of perigee. The majority of its coverage will

be in the southern latitudes as it approaches

apogee.

19. Select PAUSE.

20. Toggle to 2D map.

Observe where the perigee points are for each

satellite. The perigee point defines the point in the

orbit at which the satellite will spend the least

amount of time. In selecting a satellite orbit, you

should consider how much time a particular point

on the earth needs to be viewed. Note: a circular

orbit does not have a defined argument of

perigee. Can you explain why? Hint: The apogee

and the perigee are equal values.

21. View as often as needed. When complete,

select the PAUSE button. Close out by selecting

FILE/CLOSE. Do not save the file.

Satellite Tool Kit and STK are Registered Trademarks

of Analytical Graphics, Inc.

BackgroundIn November 1998, a Russian rocket placed

the Zarya module in orbit. This was the first flighttoward the assembly of the ISS. In December ofthe same year, the United States launched theSpace Shuttle Endeavor, which attached the UnityModule to Zarya, thus initiating the first ISSassembly sequence. Since then, twenty flightshave traveled to the ISS. America's space shuttleand two Russian rockets will continue to deliverthe various components to the space station. It will

take approximately 45 space flights, and severalyears to complete the assembly. The latest esti-mate projects a completion date of 2006.

Sixteen nations formed a global partnership tobuild the ISS. The United States and Russia havetaken the lead, but the completion of the ISS willdraw upon the scientific and technologicalresources of all sixteen countries. The other four-teen countries are: Belgium, Brazil, Canada,Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,and the United Kingdom. This cooperative agree-ment represents one of the largest non-militaryjoint efforts in history.

Facts

This project is an engineering and scientificwonder ushering in a new era of human spaceexploration. More than 100 ISS elements will beassembled during the 45 missions with a mass ofalmost one million pounds (almost 500 tons). TheISS will measure 356 feet across and 290 feetlong, and that doesn't count almost an acre (over43,000 square feet) of solar panels. It will takeapproximately 160 space walks to assist in assem-bling the ISS. Plus, the astronauts will use a 58-foot robotic arm for moving large elements of the

InternationalSpace Station

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing this chapter, youshould be able to:

- Explain some of the research to be conducted on the ISS.

- Describe the living conditions on ISS.

- Name the nations involved with ISS.

- State the purpose of ISS.- Describe the current status of

ISS.- Know the estimated timetable

for completion.- Identify some uses for the ISS.- Locate when the ISS is travel

ing over your house.

3

assembly. A smaller robot arm, about 12 feetlong, will also be used for more precise work andreplacing smaller parts.

Fully assembled, the ISS will house a crew ofup to seven. Depending on the size of the crew,the station will have one or two sleeping modulesand six or seven laboratories for research. Thespace station will have four windows for conduct-ing Earth observations, experiments, and otherapplications. There are also 11 external payloadlocations for mounting experiments.

The ISS is orbiting at about 250 miles aboveEarth at a speed of 17,500 mph. The ISS com-pletes one orbit every 90 minutes; that's sixteentimes a day. The altitude allows for launch vehi-cles from all of the international partners to provideto delivery of crews and supplies, and also pro-vides for excellent Earth observations. The spacestation can view 85 percent of the globe and 95percent of the population of Earth. In the activityportion of this chapter, you can use J-TRACK tolocate the ISS and even discover when it travels

over your house. Additionally, in the Satellite chap-ter of this book, you can use Satellite Tool Kit(STK) technology to locate the ISS. Be sure tovisit chapter 2 to see the amazing things you cando with STK.

Expedition 1 took the first crew to live onboardthe space station in October 2000. That crewspent more than 138 days at the station. Sincethen, there have been several expeditions to thespace station. As of this writing, the last mission-completed aboard the ISS was Expedition 8.

Expedition 8 conducted the first ever two-manspacewalk without a crewmwmber inside. Thespacewalkhad been scheduled for five and a halfhours, but there was a malfunction with theRussian astronaut’s space suit, so they returnedinside after three hours. Before the spacewalk wasover, the astronauts were able to install a devicethat will provide data on radiation exposure to thehuman body during space flight.

Expedition 9 is conducting many scienceexperiments and plans on two spacewalks that willperform modifications on the ISS exterior.Expedition 9 is scheduled to stay at theInternational Space Station for six months.

Life on the space station takes time to adjustto, but the ISS is designed to keep the astronautscomfortable. The modules are bright, roomy andare kept at 70° Fahrenheit at all times. In a typicalworkday, crewmembers spend 14 hours workingand exercising, 1½ hours preparing and eatingmeals, and 8 ½ hours sleeping.

Space food has gotten much better over theyears. The astronauts now have microwave ovensand refrigerators. Now they can eat more fruits

First ISS Crew: Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, AstronautBill Shepherd, and Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko.

Russia’s greenhouse experiment investigates plantdevelopment and genetics.

and vegetables, and their diets are designed tosupply each astronaut with 100 percent of the dailyvalue of vitamins and minerals necessary for theenvironment of space.

Each crewmember has a private sleepingroom. Because of no gravity, their beds are bolteddown so they won't float away. Astronauts claim itis a great way to sleep. While in the space station,the astronauts can wear regular clothing and exer-

cise daily to keep their muscles and bones fromgetting too weak.

Potential Benefits

The international partners believe that the ben-efits from ISS research far outweigh the enormouscosts of building the space station. For instance,ISS allows humans to live and study for long peri-ods in microgravity, or a weightless environment.Since gravity influences almost every biological,physical, and chemical process on Earth, thespace station gives us the unique opportunity tostudy a world without gravity. This will help us bet-

ter understand gravity's effects on plants, animals,and humans.

Without gravity, chemical reactions behave dif-ferently than they do on Earth. This means thatmolecules can be blended and substances creat-ed that would be impossible on Earth. Theseexperiments may lead to possible treatments fordiabetes, AIDS, cancer, and organ transplants.Watching the long-term effects of gravity in spacewill teach us about biological processes on Earth,such as aging and osteoporosis.

More pure protein crystals may be grown in

space than on Earth. Analysis of these crystalshelps scientists better understand the nature ofproteins, enzymes and viruses, perhaps leading tothe development of new drugs and a better under-standing of the fundamental building blocks of life.This type of research could lead to the study ofpossible treatments for cancer, diabetes, emphy-sema, and immune system disorders, among otherresearch. According to Astronaut Dan Bursch,"The National Institute of Health has said that pro-

Crewmembers Malenchenko and Lu share a meal in theZvezda Service Module.

Crewmembers of the ISS must exercise daily.

Crystals of insulin grown in microgravity, figure (a) wereextremely well ordered and unusually large (many >2mm) compared to those grown under identical condi-tions on the ground, figure (b).

tein crystal growth is the number one research toolthat we'll be using in the next century….".

Living cells can be grown in a laboratory envi-ronment in space where they are not distorted bygravity. Growing cultures for long periods aboardthe station will further advance this research.Such cultures can be used to test new treatmentsfor cancer without risking harm to patients, amongother uses.

Fluids, flames and molten metal and othermaterials will be the subject of basic research onthe station. Flames burn differently without gravi-ty. Reduced gravity reduces convection currents,and the absence of convection alters the shape ofthe flame in orbit. This allows for studying the com-bustion process in a way that is impossible onEarth. The absence of convection allows moltenmetals or other materials to be mixed more thor-oughly in orbit than on Earth. Scientists plan tostudy this to create better metal alloys and moreperfect materials for applications such as comput-er chips.

Observations of the Earth from orbit help studylarge-scale, long-term changes in the environ-ment. These studies can increase our understand-ing of forests, oceans and mountains. These stud-ies can also perceive atmospheric trends, climatechanges and even view the effects of hurricanes,typhoons, and volcanoes. Also, air pollution, waterpollution, deforestation, and how we use our land,mineral, and food resources can be seen and ana-lyzed from space and can be captured in imagesthat provide a global perspective unavailable fromthe ground.

In the field of biology, the scientists of the ISSwill assist in answering some basic scientific ques-

tions in a different environment. For example, whatis the role of gravity in the processes of biologicalevolution? Also, how does chronic exposure toaltered gravity and other space related factorsaffect normal physiology, metabolism and functionof mature organisms? These are just two of manytheories in biological research.

Many of the new engineering technologiesbeing developed on the ISS will lead to improvedcommercial space communication systems forpersonal phone, computer, and video use. Theywill also lead to improvements in energy efficien-cies, air and water capabilities and new lower-costbuilding con-struction tech-n i q u e s .Advancementsin space tech-nology will sig-n i f i c a n t l yenhance thequality of lifeon Earth.

A very re-cent develop-ment is theMic rograv i tyS c i e n c eG l o v e b o x ,which Expedi-tion 7 brought to the ISS. The glovebox is a sealedcontainer that allows astronauts to perform hands-on experiments in a sealed environment. It worksvery well with certain fluids and materials that oth-erwise might be hazardous.

Research on the commercialization of spacewill also occur. Industries will participate inresearch by conducting experiments aimed at cre-ating new products and services. The results maybenefit us by providing innovative new productsand creating new jobs to make the products.

Additionally, the space station is thought of asa stepping-stone to the stars. The ISS gives astro-nauts a much better opportunity to explore oursolar system, as well as other distant galaxies. Ifhumans are ever going to travel to other planets,such as Mars, we must understand the effects ofsuch long journeys on the human body. Wealready know that living in microgravity leads to theweakening of bones and muscles. The space sta-tion will allow scientists to understand these effectsand study solutions for long-term space travel.

Tropical Storm Claudette was seen from the ISS as itturned into a hurricane that hit Houston and other areasin Texas July 15, 2003.

Expedition Five flight engineerPeggy Whitson is shown with the

Microgravity Science Glovebox fol-lowing its installation in the Destiny

NASA continues to conduct space research toimprove life on Earth. The benefits of space contin-ue to provide advancements in science and tech-

nology. More than 150 companies are partnerswith NASA in 15 research centers in developingmeaningful, beneficial research.

Activity One

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS(CAREERS) AND SCIENCE

Objective:Explore certain careers associated with theInternational Space Station.

Materials:Computer with Internet access, task cards, pen-cil/pen.

Estimated Time: 60 minutes

BackgroundThere is a wide scope of opportunities in the

field of aerospace. Many of these professions tryto provide technologies that will add value toimprove people's quality of life by strengtheningthe nation's economy, improving the environment,increasing our mobility and safety, and ensuringthe continued national security. Many organiza-tions work together to accomplish these goalsincluding NASA, the Federal AviationAdministration, U.S. industry, the Department ofDefense, and the university community.

The crews of the International Space Station(ISS) and the Space Shuttle have inspired manypeople to pursue careers as astronauts. However,the astronauts will tell you that their jobs would beimpossible without the support people that workhard to make astronauts' jobs easier.

Many thousands of support staff provide skilland dedication to successful missions. Many areclassified as aerospace technology workers, andtheir work falls into roles that include physical, life,and social scientists, pilots, mathematicians, engi-

neers, technicians, designers, and quality controlinspectors. Many of these careers require a col-lege degree with an emphasis on mathematicsand science, but there are plenty of positions avail-able to anyone with general knowledge and adesire to achieve.

Procedure/Activity:1. Divide students/cadets into groups of three

people - "engineers", "astronauts", and "scien-tists" - and provide each with a description of the job and some questions that relate to that job.

2. Students should research and answer ques-tions; then share the answers with the rest of the group.

Rationale:This lesson will provide a better understanding

of some aerospace career fields.

Assessment:Use a rubric to evaluate research skills and

career knowledge.

Additional Information:ESL students should research someone involved in the aerospace industry fromtheir part of the world.

Have special needs students work with agroup that will be supportive and assist with the information. These students can also research one question about one career or do a web graphic organizer.

Helpful web sites:http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/news/factsheets/food.pdf (food in space)http://ltp.arc.nasa.gov/space/team/leljackson.html (reliability engineer for ISS bio)http://jsc-web-pub.jsc.nasa.gov/fpd/food. asp (space food systems laboratory)

Activity Section

http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/astronauts/ (astronaut selection information)www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/outreach/jobsinfo/astronaut.html (how to become an astronaut)http://www.scipoc.msfc.nasa.gov/ (ISS science operation news)http://www.nasaexplores.com/lessons/01-044/9-12_article.pdf (article containing the physicalaspects of microgravity)http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/projects/astrobiology/astroventure/teachers/fact_sheets.html#generic (generic career fact sheets)

Student Information

Task Cards for Careers

Engineer Task Card

Your responsibility is to investigate the design and construction of ISS components that will support astronauts living and working in space. Think about what materials you will need, and work with scientists and astronauts to determine priorities of power, life support and other requirements. Report on what international partners are currently doing to prepare for ISS.

• What does it take to become an engineer for the ISS? • How are ISS engineers currently training for the missions? • What role might you play in how meals are determined for Space Station?

Internet Resource Space Station Home Page http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station

currently doing to prepare for ISS.

Activity TwoSOCIAL STUDIES

Objective: Practice reading longitude and latitude as well asexploring sighting days and times for the ISS atspecific locations.

Materials:Computer with Internet access, world map or atlas,pencil, and chart to fill in.

Estimated Time:60 minutes

BackgroundIf you look in the sky at the right time and

right place, you can see the International Space

Station. Except for the Moon, it's the brightestobject in the nighttime sky. The Space Station is inorbit at about 250 miles above the Earth's surface,and moves at about 17,000 miles an hour. Movingat that speed results in the ISS making about 16complete trips around the Earth each day. TheSpace Station remains visible in any given sectionof the sky for 10 minutes or less. If it's not movingit's not the ISS. It moves at approximately thesame rate as an airplane, but an airplane blinks.And a plane follows a linear path. The SpaceStation follows an arc. If you live in the 60 to -60degree latitudes, you've got the best circum-stances to view the ISS and that's just about every-one in America. For sighting information, go to:h t t p : / / s p a c e f l i g h t . n a s a . g o v /realdata/sightings/index.html.

Scientist Task Card

Your responsibility is to investigate the types of research proposed for the Space Station. Report on how microgravity will benefit this research, and how this research will benefit life on earth. Work with engineers and astronauts to investigate how research will be conducted differently on ISS, considering weight, size, and power restrictions, as well as, the human interaction required.

• What does it take to become a scientist for the ISS? • How are ISS scientists currently planning for the missions? • What role might you play in how meals are determined for Space Station? • What effects does microgravity have on the body?

Internet Resource: Space Station Science http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/science/index.html

Scientist Task Card

Your responsibility is to investigate the types of research proposed for the Space Station. Report on how microgravity will benefit this research, and how this research will benefit life on earth. Work with engineers and astronauts to investigate how research will be conducted differently on ISS, considering weight, size, and power restrictions, as well as, the human interaction required.

• What does it take to become a scientist for the ISS? • How are ISS scientists currently planning for the missions? • What role might you play in how meals are determined for Space Station? • What effects does microgravity have on the body?

Internet Resource: Space Station Science http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/science/index.html

Procedure/Activity:

1. Review latitude and longitude and how to use an atlas.

2. Give students the chart to locate places and fillin the name of the city for each longitude and latitude.

3. Next, have students go to the j-track web site:http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html and find the day and time the Space Station can be seen at this location (have them choose three days - the same three days - for all locations.)

4. Extension: Students can create a graph show-ing the times and days for each location (loca-tions can be color coded).

Rationale:This lesson will strengthen latitude and longitudeskill as well as create interest in locating the ISS inthe sky.

Assessment:Students will be evaluated according to accuracyin identifying and labeling the cities from the chart.

Additional Information:ESL students can locate places with the help ofthe ESL teacher or another student.

Special Education students can locate fewer places (half of the chart). Website:http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/realtime/jtrack/spacecraft.html (Skywatch - see satellite paths over the Earth).Website concerning longitude and latitude - http://www.infoplease.com/homework/latlongfaq.html Website for maps:http://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/index.html

Student/Cadet Information

Materials:Computer with Internet access, worldmap or atlas, pencil, and chart to fillin.

Directions:1. Review latitude and longitude

and how to use an atlas with yourteacher.

2. Get the chart to locate places and fill in the name of the city for each longitude and latitude.

Place a mark on the map for each location.3. Go to the j-track web site: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html and find the day

and time the Space Station can be seen at each location (choose three days - the same three days - for all locations.)

4. Extension: Create a graph showing the times and days for each location (locations can be color coded).

Name: ________________________________________ Date:_____________

Web site: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html

Latitude Longitude Location Date(s) Corresponding Time(s)

57:12:00 N 2:12:00 W

33:45:46 N 84:25:21 W

39:55:00 N 116:23:00 E

33:31:40 N 86:47:57 W

42:20:10 N 71:01:04 W

42:53:23 N 78:51:35 W

53:30:00 N 113:30:00 W

53:34:00 N 10:02:00 E

58:23:19 N 134:08:00 W

38:42:00 N 9:05:00 W

36:36:05 N 121:52:54 W

40:46:38 N 111:55:48 W

30:18:21 N 97:45:02 W

18:58:00 N 72:50:00 E

34:20:00 S 58:30:00 W

30:00:00 N 31:17:00 E

21:02:00 N 105:51:00 E

41:02:00 N 29:00:00 E

37:52:00 S 145:08:00 E

48:13:00 N 16:22:00 E

On a world map, place an X on the cities in this chart.

Activity Three

A SIGN OF THE TIMES

Procedure:

Develop a time line from the list of importantevents below. Review your CAP aerospace edu-cation products to remind yourself of many ofthese events. Use the internet or other textbooksto learn more about the events that are notincluded in your CAP books.

Develop your time line. Of course, it is yourtime line, so if you want to add or subtract eventsyou certainly can. For easy reference, considerhanging the time line on a wall, a shelf or place iton a table.

Important Events:

1870 American writer Edward Everett Hale published a science fiction tale called "The Brick Moon" in the Atlantic Monthly.

1903 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky wrote Beyond the Planet Earth.

1923 Hermann Oberth coined the term "Space Station."

1927 Robert Goddard launched the first liquid-fueled rocket.

1928 Herman Noordung published the first Space Station blueprint.

1942 German V-2 rocket developed and used.

1945 Wernher von Braun came to the US to build rockets for the US Army.

1952 In Collier's magazine articles, Wernher von Braun described a wheel-shaped Space Station reached by reusable winged space-craft.1955 Work began on the Baikonur launch site in central Asia.

1956 The world's first intercontinental ballisticmissile lifted off from Baikonur.

1957 Sputnik 1 launched from Baikonur.

1961 Yuri Gagarin launched in the Vostok 1 capsule, becoming the first human in space.

1969 Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin becamethe first humans to walk on the moon.

1971 The first Space Station in history, the Russian Salyut 1, reached orbit atop a Protonrocket.

1973 The US launched the Skylab Space Station atop a Saturn V rocket.

1974-1977 Salyut 3, 4 are launched (also known as Almaz Station).

1977 Salyut 6 launched.

1982 Salyut 7 launched.

1984 President Ronald Reagan called for a Space Station that includes participation by US allies.

1985 Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency each signed a bilateral mem-orandum of understanding with the US for participation in the Space Station project.

1986 Space Station Mir initial element launched.

1988 Formal agreements were signed be-tween the US and its Space Station partners.

1992 Russia joined the US and its partners inthe International Space Station Program.

1995 The Shuttle-Mir Program, the first phase of the ISS, began.

1998 The first two elements of the ISS, Zarya and Unity, launched from Russia and the US.

Activity Four WHERE IS THE ISS?

Go to www.liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov for J-Track.This site will track the ISS.

Activity FiveBUILDING THE ISS

OBJECTIVE

To introduce students/cadets to theInternational Space Station as a topic of study.The secondary objective is to build a model of theISS that will hang in a classroom, or meeting site,in the form of a mobile.

BACKGROUND

The first module of the International SpaceStation, known as Zarya, was placed in orbit on the20th of November, 1998, by a Russian ProtonLaunch system. On December 3, of that year, asecond module, known as Unity, was put into orbitby our Space Shuttle and the two units were joinedtogether.

This was the culmination of a long, turbulentprocess of funding problems and internationalcooperation. Actual planning began in the Eighties;however dominance of the program by the U.S.didn't set well with many of the countries sched-uled to be involved in the project. Over a period ofseveral years, projected costs forced many of thepotential partner nations to withdraw support andfunding. A continuous down sizing and argumentsover its mission almost brought about cancellationof the project.

In 1993, President Clinton gave NASA the taskof reorganizing and restructuring the ISS program.Using expertise and existing space hardware, theUS and Russia were able to cut projected costs by

nearly 40%. The U.S. was able to negotiate anagreement with Russia as a result of this new part-nership-the former Soviet Union agreed to stop thesale of ballistic missile components to other coun-tries and to maintain strict control over the exportof strategic weapons technology. Another benefitwas the expertise and technology gained by theRussians from their experience in long termmanned flight aboard the MIR space station. If allgoes according to plan, a fully operational SpaceStation will be ready by the year 2004.

MATERIALS

Build this in stages; however, it is recommend-ed that you get all of the supplies together aheadof time. These include:

a. At least a dozen long bamboo skewer sticks. These can be purchased at grocerystores.

b. One or two large soda straws are required.c. 6-8 foam meat trays, preferably the ones

that have one side "waffled." Usually, meatmarkets have these available. If you will shop around, waffled trays can be found inblue and that makes the PV array panels more realistic!

d. A length of pipe foam insulation, similar to the kind used in the Goddard Rocket, will be needed to make the modules. Toilet paper or kitchen paper towel cylinders canbe used for modules.

e. The tubular modules can be capped with black or gray 35mm film canister caps.

f. A roll of high-strength packaging tape will be used to hold the "station" parts together.

g. A length of nylon fish line can be used to hang the ISS from a ceiling in a classroomor CAP squadron.

h. Hot glue guns can be used to bond tubes and end caps.

i. Epoxy glue works very well to bond areas that tend to get broken easily.

PROCEDURE

You are urged to follow this sequence of con-struction:

1. The bamboo skewer sticks are "stacked" together for the integratedtruss assem-

bly component shown in the "Inter-national Space Station Assembly Complete" illustration.

2. These skewer sticks (4-6) are first taped together in the center to hold them in a bundle. This is done by wrapping them with a long, single piece of packaging tape.

3. If your bundle isn't too bulky, you should be able to push a large soda straw over the bundle covering the tape. Check the illustration and you will see how it is sup-posed to look at this stage.

4. Using a hot glue gun, bond four skewer sticks at the positions shown on the illus-tration. These will be the frames for attaching the PV Array Panels.

5. Cut out at least 8 PV Array Panels from

your supply of foam meat trays. These are 9 inches long and about 2 inches wide.

6. The PV Array Panels are bonded to the bamboo skewer sticks as shown in the illustration.

7. Lengths of pipe foam tubing are used to make the main modules. Use the illustra-tion as a guide.

8. Film canister lids are used to "cap" the open foam tube "modules."

9. Using the ISS Assembly Complete illustration as a guide, students can make more modules and arrays to improve accuracy.

10. Once complete, nylon fish line can be used to hang this replica in a classroom.

International Space Station IllustrationThis is the most current layout of the International Space Station. It should be noted that ISS assembly launches areon hold awaiting the Space Shuttle's return to flight following the Columbia's tragic loss.

This is a guide to the basic construction of theISS. It is recommended that teachers and AEOsbuild the Station in stages so that students canstudy each module as an individual lesson.Cylinders made of cardstock or those found inpaper products work quite well. Foam tubing wasused because it is very light and weight is a fac-tor in how the ISS "mobile" will look when com-pleted. (Illustration by Seth Stewart.)

Discussion

1. By using library, or Internet sources, students can study each component as it is built into the ISS.

2. This project can be expanded using clear plastic soda pop bottles. The smaller Coke® or Pepsi ® bottles can be used instead of the foam pipe insulation material. Bamboo is very strong and will support quite a bit of weight. To keep the main Integrated Truss Assembly from bending with the additional weight, it recommended that more sticks be used.

3. Each of the larger bottles can be filled with tiny "Astronauts" and equipment so that stu-

dents can see how each module is being used. The complexity depends upon the age level of students involved in the project.

4. Teachers and AEOs are urged to use the "Gallery" section of Boeing's web site to see some very dramatic images of the Space Station. This site has a tremendous amount ofinformation about the ISS.

Activity Six

"PUFFY HEAD, BIRD LEGS"Human Physiology In Space

OBJECTIVE

This activity will make you aware of thechanges that the human body experiences inspace flight.

CREDIT- Human Physiology in Space (pp 63-66)by R. J. White & B.F. Lujan, NASA Life andBiomedical Science and Applications Division,1994. Online at:http://www.nsbri.org/HumanPhysSpace/

Ms. Lauren Allwein, aerospace teacher at theNationally-acclaimed Euclid Middle School,Littleton, Colorado, attended an extensive sum-mer course put on by the Baylor University Collegeof Medicine. This course is known as "FromOuterspace To Innerspace" and has the theme,"What can we learn in space about bodies here onEarth?" This outstanding program is highly recom-mended by the Civil Air Patrol's AerospaceEducation Division. For more information aboutthe National Space Biomedical Research InstituteK-8 education Programs, please contact theCenter for Education Outreach Baylor College ofMedicine, Houston, Texas. 800-798-8244 or visitthe NSBRI Web site at www.nsbri.org.

BACKGROUND All astronauts and cosmonauts experience a

phenomenon known as the "Puffy-Head, BirdLegs" When in a condition of microgravity, astro-nauts report a feeling of "stuffiness" especially inthe sinuses, and a "fullness " in the head. There isalso a puffiness of the face and this can be easilymeasured. Where aerospace medical specialistsmeasure various parts of the body, such as faceand legs, it clearly shows that changes occur in theshape of the legs. Astronauts call this condition"bird legs."

Measurements taken of the leg circumferenceduring space flight on astronauts with larger legsshow a proportionally larger decrease in leg vol-ume than those with smaller legs. This is

explained by the fact that the more muscle a per-son has in the his/her limbs, the more fluid andblood flow is required to nourish those muscles.The more fluid and blood there is, the more thereis to lose. It has shown that a fluid shift actuallybegins during the launch sequence. This is due tothe astronaut having been seated in the spaceshuttle in a reclining position with his/her legs ele-vated, sometimes for several hours prior to launch.

PROCEDURE

In this activity, the students will break out intoteams of three. Two will be the aeromedical scien-tists and the other will be the astronaut. A piece oftape (like masking) and a soft tape measure (foundat fabric stores) will be used to make the measure-ments. Data will be collected from measurementsof the astronaut standing and reclining. It might bepointed out that during the early portions of thehead-down orientation, a student's stroke volumeincreases from about 75 ml/beat to about 90ml./beat. This is entirely expected because thereis a rush of fluids to the upper part of the body andthe heart then has more blood to force out duringeach beat. In addition, to compensate for thisincrease in stroke volume (to keep cardiac outputrelatively stable), the subject's heart rate decreas-es. Therefore, during the portion of this studentinvestigation where you are determining cardiacoutput, don't be surprised when you obtain lowervalues for the subject's heart rate. This is normal.

Students are given a full briefing before beginning the activity. If they know the importance of the datagathered, they will tend to take it more seriously.

1. Student Joe Winne volunteer-ed to become the astronaut. Teacher Lauren Allwein placesa piece of masking tape on hisforehead, and this will becomethe point where measure-ments are taken. This tape is left in position throughout the experiment.

2. A similar piece of tape is placed on the subject's calf muscle. This will be the point where another source of data is gathered.

3. Chelsea Frommer and RachelWinne carefully measure Joe'sforehead in a standing posi-tion. It is important to get accurate circumference meas-urements from the test sub-ject's leg and forehead in mil-

limeters. Have the person(s) doing the measuring be accu-rate and record the data on a data table. Be neat and make sure that numbers are accu-rate.

4. The next step is to get an accurate standing pulse rate.The scientists at the Baylor College of Medicine say, "…Toget the test subject's STANDING pulse, have the test sub-ject stand up for 3 minutes, then sit down and the 'pulse taker' should take the test subject's pulse for 15 seconds.Multiply this pulse rate times 4 to get the standing pulse rate.Record this pulse on the data table in the 'standing pulse rate' box."

5.The astronaut is allowed to liedown with his feet propped upon a chair. A timer should begin timing for 5 minutes. Record the starting time. After5 minutes have passed, whilethe test subject is still lying down, remeasure the calf andforehead in millimeters on the

tape in exactly the same spot.Be accurate. Record this measurement in the “after 5 minutes-head down-feet up” calf and forehead boxes. While the test subject is still lying down, observe his facial characteristics and record these on the data sheet in the“facial observations after 5 minutes” box. While the test

subject is still lying down, question him about this own feelings or sensations. Recordthese sensations under “test subjects sensations after 5 minutes” box on the data sheet. Again, while the test subject is still lying down, take his pulse for 15 seconds.Multiply this pulse by 4 and record it on the data sheet under “pulse rate after 5 min-utes.

The same procedure can berepeated for 10 minutes, 15 min-utes and 20 minutes. All of themeasurements are recorded anda conclusion is made regardingfluid shifts in the body duringstanding and reclining positions.

4

Mars

Mars has been a topic of interest and constantscrutiny lately. Not only has it been a very brightstar in the evening sky but two probes recentlylanded on Mars and have been exploring it for acouple of months. Read on and see the latestnews about the intriguing planet, Mars.

A Bright StarIn August of 2003, if you looked up into the

night sky you probably noticed something a littledifferent; perhaps there was a brighter object outthere. That object would have been Mars. Marswas closer to Earth in August than it had been for60,000 years. On August 27, 2003, Mars wasactually closer than 35 million miles from Earth.Normally, Mars is 50 to 60 million miles fromEarth.

Of all the planets in our solar system, probablythe one that has most mystified and intrigued sci-entists and non-scientists, has been Mars.Probably more books have been written, moviesmade, and research conducted on Mars than anyof our other neighboring planets. People werefascinated by H. G. Wells popular book The Warof the Worlds. The book introduced us to Marsand its creatures, and so did the famous movie ofthe same name, based on Wells' book. So, whyso much curiosity about Mars?

Many folks have heard Mars referred to as theangry red planet, and I think the visible redness ofMars adds to our fascination. However, not dis-counting any of the above, I believe that Marsintrigues us most because there is still expectation

that life could exist on Mars.Before we discuss the latest missions to Mars,

and the continuation of exploring the possibility oflife on Mars, let's review some of the facts aboutMars.

Mars' FactsMars is the fourth planet in our solar system

from the sun. It appears as a reddish light whenviewed with the naked eye at night. This reddish

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing this chapter, youshould be able to:- State facts about Mars'

environment.- Describe reasons for scientists'

interest in Mars.- Identify earlier missions to

Mars and what they accom-plished.

- Describe the current missions to Mars and their status.

- Describe future missions to Mars.

Earth Mars Orbit (NASA Photo)

color stems from the rocks and dust covering thesurface of Mars. The surface has a high iron con-tent that gives it a rusty look. The surface of Marsis very dry and rocky and covered with this red-dish dust.

Mars' atmosphere consists of 95% carbondioxide, 3% nitrogen and traces of oxygen, car-bon monoxide and water. Daytime temperaturesreach 65 F, while nighttime temperatures can dipto -130 F. These temperatures were recordedfrom Mars' surface. One day on Mars lasts 24hours 37 minutes. A year on Mars lasts 687 Earthdays.

The characteristics of Mars are closest toEarth's of any of the planets in our solar system.

Some scientists believe that conditions are rightfor life on Mars. Some scientists think that poolsof frozen or liquid water may be hidden under-ground. The North and South Poles of Mars arecovered with permanent ice caps that are mademostly of carbon dioxide (dry ice) and water ice.In summer, much of the carbon dioxide sublimes,leaving a residual layer of water ice.

Past Expeditions

In the 1960s, Mariner spacecraft made flybysand took lots of photos of Mars. Then, in the1970s, Viking 1 touched down on Mars.Unfortunately, the experiments were inconclusiveeven though more water was found on Mars thanhad been expected.

In July 1997, the space probe, MarsPathfinder, landed on Mars. The Pathfinder'srover, Sojourner (two feet long and one foot tall)

explored the planet.The Sojourner stud-ied the surface, ana-lyzed the soil androcks and conductedscientific ex-peri-ments on Mars.

In September1997, Mars GlobalSurveyor arrived atMars and began stu-dying Mars' climateand geology. TheSurveyor has beenhighly successful and has sent back great pic-tures and information about Mars. In fact, it is stilloperating on Mars.

From 1998-2000 the Mars Program experi-enced engineering problems and funding short-ages. The MarsPolar Lander and theMars Climate Orbiterfailed to achievetheir missions, andthe Mars programwas restructured.Then in 2001 theMars Odyssey or-biter was launched.

Current Missions

In June 2003, the European Space Agency(ESA) launched the Mars Express Orbiter and theBeagle 2 Lander, which was due to land on Marsin late December 2003. The Lander hasn't beenheard from for months and an investigation isunderway to find out what happened. The resultsshould be reported soon. Once on Mars, theBeagle 2 was supposed to study the surface ofMars and collect rock samples. The Beagle 2'sequipment includedtwo cameras, twospectrometers, anda microscope. Sam-ples were to beexamined by anautomated minilaband relayed back toEarth. As of the mid-dle of March 2004,the Beagle 2's status

Graph shows near surface temperature on Mars. (Information copied from NASA photo)

The Sojourner. (NASA photo)

Mars Global Surveyor(NASA photo)

Mars Rover Opportunity(NASA photo)

is still unknown.Also in June-July 2003, the US launched two

Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.These two joined ESA's orbiter, NASA's MarsGlobal Surveyor and Mars Odyssey, and Japan'sNozomi in the vicinity of Mars in January 2004.Six probes all studying Mars at the same time.

Together they will investigate the evolution of theplanet, its internal activity, and its past and pres-ent indications of water and life. Not since theApollo program has such an extensive effort beenmade to explore a heavenly body.

Spirit landed on Mars on January 4, 2004 andOpportunity landed January 25, 2004. The tworovers will try to determine if water was presenton Mars and whether there are favorable condi-tions for the evidence of ancient life on Mars.These two rovers are designed to cover as muchterritory in one day as the Mars Pathfinder didduring its entire mission.

This pursuit of Mars is scheduled to continuefor at least a few more years. NASA announcedrecently that it selected the University of Arizona'sPhoenix missions to launch to Mars in 2007. Theuniversity will build a spacecraft that will land onthe planet's northern pole, an area rich in waterice. So, the study of Mars is not going away, untilscientists can reasonably answer the questionsabout water and life on Mars.

First Color Picture of Mars surfac. (NASA Photo)

How we communicate with the Mars orbiters and rovers.

Activity One

Build Your Own Mars PathfinderSpacecraft Model

Download the cutouts below, print andconstruct the model. You will need scissors,tape and/or glue to put it together, and coloredmarkers or pencils to finish it up. Download Instructions:

Method 1 1. Click on the image.

A larger version of the image will be displayed.

2. From your browser's menu, select Save As.

3. Make sure you save the page Format as Source.

Method 21. Click and hold your mouse button on

the image (right button on a PC). 2. After a few seconds, a menu will

appear. 3. Select Save this link as.4. Make sure to select source as the

save format. Note: The images you will be downloadingare large files. Your download time willdepend on the speed of your modem. Smaller, less sharp GIF versions of theimages are available below the picturedimages. These smaller files will still print outon 8.5"x11" size paper but will have a lowerresolution.

Each image is sized to print on regular8.5"x11" paper (landscape orientation).Remember, the thicker the stock you print on,the sturdier your model will be!

Activity Section

Astronomers have been studying the stars forhundreds of years, and yet the fascinationremains with us today. We are fascinated by the

unknown, by what might be, and by the sheerbeauty and wonder of space.

Many books discuss the planets within oursolar system, and the other bodies existing inspace. In fact, CAP's Aerospace: The Journey ofFlight is a good source for reading and learningabout these entities. This chapter is not going toelaborate on this already covered territory.Instead, we want to bring you up to date on thelatest scientific discoveries within our universe.

I have collected and compiled several articlesfrom various NASA websites. Sometimes, I print-ed the article intact, other times I took excerptsfrom the articles to give you the latest investiga-tions and discoveries in space. These articles arepresented chronologically beginning with 1999 -2003. We hope you enjoy the articles and learnnew information about space discoveries.

Astronomy

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After completing this chapter, youshould be able to:- Identify some of the latest

space discoveries.- Discuss any new planetary

discoveries.- Discuss latest findings con

cerning stars.

Jupiter's Composition Throws Planet-formation Theories into Disarray

By Robert Roy Britt, Senior Science WriterPosted: 12:06 P.M. ET, 17 November 1999

Examining four-year-old data, researchershave found significantly elevated levels of certainelements in Jupiter's atmosphere that may force arethinking of theories about how the planet, andpossibly the entire solar system, formed. The workmay even help explain why giant planets havebeen found curiously close to other stars.

The elements -- argon, krypton and xenon --are called noble gases. They are independentcharacters that don't like to be trapped and strong-ly resist freezing except at the lowest tempera-tures (scientists say they are inert). Therefore,they are either rare or nonexistent in the sun, onEarth and in asteroids and comets inside the orbit

5

of Neptune, where temperatures are relativelywarm compared with the more frozen reaches ofspace.

So the discovery in Jupiter's atmosphere ofrelatively large amounts of these gases -- up tothree times what exists in the sun -- has scientistspuzzling over how, and possibly where, Jupitertrapped the noble gases in the first place. Thepuzzle will be described, though not solved, inThursday's issue of the journal Nature. "The implications are enormous," said SushilAtreya, director of the Planetary ScienceLaboratory at the University of Michigan and partof the international team of researchers that madethe discovery.

How planets formed … maybe

Prevailing theories of planetary formation holdthat the sun gathered itself together in the centerof a pancake-shaped disk of gas and dust, thenthe planets begin to take shape by cleaning up theleftovers. A developing planet trapped nearby gasand dust, and its gravitational tug reigned incomets and other icy bodies, called planetesi-mals.

In Jupiter's current orbit, 5 astronomical unitsfrom the sun, temperatures are too warm for theplanetesimals to have trapped the noble gases,researchers say (one astronomical unit, or AU, isthe distance from the sun to Earth). Only in theKuiper belt -- a frigid region of the solar systemmore than 40 AU from the sun -- could planetesi-mals have trapped argon, krypton and xenon.

"How did they become so abundant onJupiter?" asks lead researcher Tobias Owen ofthe University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy.

Owen and his colleagues speculate that eitherthe developing solar nebula was far colder thancurrent models estimate, or else Jupiter wanderedinto its present orbit sometime after havingformed. A third possibility, and the one Owen con-siders the most likely, is that planetesimals beganforming earlier and more rapidly, before the preso-lar disk had warmed up. Either answer throws cur-rent theories into disarray.

And solving the puzzle, Owen says, has impli-cations even beyond our solar system.

"If the planetesimals really formed so earlyand so fast, then they could build giant planetsmuch closer to their stars than people have

thought," Owen explained in an e-mail interview."This would help to explain why the new planetarysystems that are being discovered have giantplanets so close to their stars. The planets wouldnot have to migrate inward as far as people havethought."

How the finding was made

In 1995, NASA's Galileo spacecraft dropped aprobe into Jupiter's atmosphere. An onboard"mass spectrometer" measured the quantities ofvarious gases. Researchers have been analyzingthe data in recent years, but they worked on themost abundant elements first. While that researchwas valuable, it was the more recent work thatproved most surprising.

"The excitement is all about argon, kryptonand xenon," Owen said. "You are breathing tinytraces of them right now as you read this."

Owen said the three noble gases are as abun-dant in the jovian atmosphere as are carbon andsulfur, a "surprising" result. Jupiter's primary ingre-dients, like that of the sun and the stars, arehydrogen and helium.

Is Jupiter a wanderer?

While Owen does not put much stock in theidea that Jupiter might have migrated inward to itspresent position, other scientists on the team saythe idea merits consideration. As evidence of howlittle we know about the possibilities, they citedrecent announcements of a possible tenth planetorbiting at an incredibly far-out 25,000 AU ormore, as well as the fact that planets much largerthan Jupiter have been found extremely close toother stars.

But the idea of Jupiter as a wanderer stillleaves significant questions about the source ofthe noble gases. "If Jupiter had migrated inward, itwould have had to come from way out there, 40 or50 astronomical units," said Atreya, the PlanetaryScience Laboratory director.

Owen said that experts on the physics control-ling this kind of migration think such a scenario is"highly unlikely." Researchers add that this distantregion of the solar system -- the Kuiper belt at 40to 50 AU -- does not currently have enough massto account for something Jupiter-sized, nor are theconcentrations of heavy elements comparable to

what is found in Jupiter."You have to characterize our understanding

of how the solar system got started as sort of in astate of flux," said Thomas Donahue, also of thePlanetary Science Laboratory. "There may bemore to the solar system than we know about."Where do we go from here?

Since there now seems to be much morelearning to do, Owen and his colleagues are call-ing for more spacecraft to deploy probes into theother gaseous planets. Owen expects the probes

will find similarly high levels of noble gases inSaturn, Uranus and Neptune. Hints of thesegases have even been found in the thick atmos-phere of Venus, another planet now begging morestudy.

And Owen said answers to the origin of all thisargon, krypton and xenon may still be lurking outthere, awaiting discovery: "Comets are probablymore diverse than we think, and there may still besome of these very primitive objects left in thecomet pool."

Three Extrasolar Planets FoundBy Telescope Down Under

posted: 07:00 am ET12 December 2000

Three planets around distant stars have beenfound by scientists using a new high-precisionsystem on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT).The new planets were found around nearby starswithin 150 light-years of Earth. Forty-six otherextrasolar planets have been found since 1995,with the most recent three being the first found bya telescope "down under."

Most planet searches have detected planetsmore massive than Jupiter, the largest planet inour solar system.

"As a result, searches are picking up all theweird giant planets first," says team leader ChrisTinney of the Anglo-Australian Observatory.

The smallest of the new trio is a kind planethunters call a "hot Jupiter." It has a mass at least84 percent that of Jupiter's but lies scorchinglyclose to its parent star, far closer than Mercurydoes to the Sun. Its "year," or the time it takes tomake a single revolution around its star, is a merethree Earth days.

The middleweight planet lies in an Earth-likeorbit inside the "habitable zone" where liquidwater could exist. The planet itself is not Earth-like: weighing at least 1.26 Jupiter masses, it isalmost certainly a Jupiter-like gas giant. It takes aleisurely 426 days to complete the voyage around

This image compares the orbits of the four new planets-- each discovered around its own star -- with the orbitsof our inner solar system planets. Like the planets ofour own solar system, epsilon Reticulum and HD179949have nearly circular orbits. In comparison, the browndwarf HD164427 and mu Ara lie on very elongatedorbits. If mu Ara lay in our own solar system it wouldswing between the orbits of the Earth and Mars onceevery year.

its star, epsilon Reticulum in the constellation ofthe Net.

The third planet is also a gas giant of at least1.86 Jupiter masses. Its orbit extends just a bit fur-ther from its star than Mars does from the Sun. Ittakes 743 days to crawl around its star, mu Ara, inthe constellation of the Altar.

Since 1998 the AAT search has looked at 200nearby stars in the southern sky. There are prob-ably more planets in the pipeline, says Tinney."In three years you can catch only the short-peri-od planets," he said. "To pick up ones with longerorbits you have to observe for a few more years."The AAT searchers also found a single browndwarf, a small "failed-star star," in orbit aroundHD164427.

How it's done

The AAT search complements searches of thenorthern sky being done by veteran planethunters Geoffrey Marcy, Paul Butler and MichelMayor.

Both these and the AAT search use the "wob-ble" technique. As an unseen planet orbits a dis-tant star it tugs on it, causing the star to moveback and forth in space. That wobble can bedetected by the Doppler shift it causes in the star'slight.

"The AAT search is the most sensitive searchin the Southern Hemisphere," says team memberAlan Penny of Rutherford Appleton Laboratory inthe United Kingdom.

The precision comes from simple glass tubecontaining specks of iodine, and "a bunch of

clever software" written by Paul Butler, saysTinney.

Heating the glass cell turns the iodine to a pur-ple gas. Starlight passing through the gas has itsspectrum modified. This reference spectrum isthen compared with unmodified starlight. "Thishelps us get much of the junk out of the spec-trum," Butler said.

Along with Butler, of the Carnegie Institution ofWashington, and Marcy, of UC Berkeley, Tinneyworked to find the three planets with researchersfrom Liverpool John Moores University,Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, University ofSussex, University of Colorado, University ofCalifornia Santa Cruz and Tennessee StateUniversity.

Future searchesSeeing wobbling stars directly is the next step

in planet hunting. That job will fall first off to theVery Large Telescope Inteferometer (VLTI) nowbeing built in Chile and NASA's SpaceInterferometry Mission (SIM), due to launch in2009. SIM will spend five years probing nearbystars for Earth-sized planets. Present-day search-es will provide target lists for SIM and the VLTI.Is it worth finding more planets? Absolutely, saysButler. "It will be at least five years before we findenough planets to even begin making sensibleguesses about the whole population out there."

But the planets found to date are so differentfrom those in the solar system that theories ofplanet formation have been "turned on theirhead," he said.

Search for Another EarthQuietly Underway

By Robert Roy Britt, Senior Science Writerposted: 07:00 am ET, 30 November 2000

After a five-year search that has turned upmore than 40 giant, inhospitable planets aroundother stars, the hunt is quietly underway to discov-er another place like home. And while no scientistcan say for sure that any such planet exists, opti-mism is high that another Earth will be found with-

in the decade, possibly much sooner.It would be a discovery of sizeable historic

proportion, akin to learning that our solar systemwas not the center of the universe and rechargingthe growing expectation that we are not alone. And it could galvanize and accelerate efforts to

explore space to a degree not seen since theU.S.-Soviet space race.

The sheer volume and variety of extrasolarplanets found so far fuels a strong expectationamong those involved in the search that theremust be other Earth-sized planets orbiting otherstars at distances suitable for supporting life."There are about 200 billion stars in our galaxy,"said Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution ofWashington. "I would guess that Earth-like planetsmust exist."

Butler and a colleague, Geoffrey Marcy, pio-neered the hunt for extrasolar planets, or exoplan-ets. They lead teams that detect small wobbles instars caused by the gravitational pull of an orbitingplanet. Along with their colleagues, they havefound the majority of confirmed other worlds. But the wobble method so far spots mostly verylarge planets that orbit extremely close to theirhost stars -- many are closer than Mercury is toour Sun -- not a place you'd want to live. And sci-entists have yet to see these planets directly.

Now, new methods and a handful of missionson the horizon are close to bringing another Earthwithin our optical reach.

Earth-sized planet discoveryimminent

In recent interviews, three leading planethunters told SPACE.com that a potentially habit-able Earth-like planet might well be found within10 years. And extrasolar planets in the "terrestrial"range -- no more than 2.5 times the size of Earth-- could be found within five years, possibly evenduring 2001.

Discovering one of these so-called "terrestri-als" could well spur the funding, decisions andbrainstorming needed to support missions thatwould root out truly habitable planets, scientistssay.

Hans J. Deeg, a planet hunter involved in mul-tiple searches, says if either of two planned mis-sions gets off the drawing boards in a timely man-ner -- the ESA's Eddington mission or NASA'sKepler mission -- then a truly Earth-sized planetshould be found in about 10 years.

Meanwhile, Deeg is currently working onCOROT, a European space-based telescope dueto launch in 2004.

Future Missions to Search forEarth-like Planets

By Robert Roy Britt, Senior Science Writerposted: 07:00 am ET, 30 November 2000

Several space missions have been dreamedup to search for Earth-like planets around otherstars. Some may remain dreams, others are clos-er to reality. Here, we detail six of the more prom-ising candidates (though there are many others).

COROT missionThe French space agency CNES leads a

group that is designing COROT (COnvection,ROtation and Transits). This small Earth-orbitingtelescope will likely be the first space telescopededicated to the search for Earth-like planets.Most other planet hunting so far has been donewith ground telescopes or, when space tele-

scopes have beenuse, time hasbeen limited.

C O R O Twould detect plan-ets when theyhappen to pass infront of their hoststar, an eventknown as a tran-sit, which causesa dip in the bright-ness of the star.

The tele-scope is only 27

centimeters (10.6 inches) in diameter. Its valuewould lie in the fact that it would sit above the blur-ring effects of Earth's atmosphere and that itwould be devoted to the task of exoplanet hunting.Some stars will be studied for five months, to buildstrong signals that can then be picked out.

COROT participants include Spain, Austria,Belgium, ESTEC, Italy and the European SpaceAgency (ESA). Promoters say it will launch in 2004.

Eddington mission

The Eddington mission was proposed to theEuropean Space Agency (ESA) in early 2000. Itwould search for and study potentially habitableplanets around other stars using a 1.2-meter (47-inch) optical telescope.

Eddington would carry an optical photometermounted on a three-axis stabilized platform, sit-

ting far from Earth. The mission would also studythe makeup and evolution of stars.

In October, the ESA's Science ProgramCommittee approved Eddington as part of a larg-er set of initiatives to be implemented between2008 and 2013. A workshop to discuss the mis-sion will be held June 11-15, 2001, in Spain.

Kepler mission

The Kepler mission has been proposed as anelement in NASA's Discovery Program. Its goalwould be to survey relatively nearby stars todetect and characterize hundreds of terrestrialand larger planets -- if they exist -- in or near thehabitable zone.

The satellite's telescope would have a 0.95-meter (37-inch) aperture. It would orbit the Sunand study some 100,000 stars for four years.

Kepler would study the size, orbit and compo-sition of any Earth-like planets it found, and wouldalso study the properties of stars that harbor plan-etary systems. The mission could get approval inDecember of this year, or possibly January 2001.No launch date has been projected.

Darwin mission

The European Space Agency has targeted theInfraRed Space Interferometer-Darwin for alaunch in 2015 or later. Decisions about whetherto go forward with the mission are expectedaround 2003.

The telescope, using infrared rather than opti-cal wavelengths, would hunt for Earth-like planetsaround some 300 Sun-like stars within 50 light-years of Earth. Darwin would actually be an arrayof six small eyes, forming an effective giant thatwould mimic a 100-yard (91-meter) telescope.Scientists are still studying how such a systemmight be designed.

Unlike current space-based telescopes,Darwin would operate somewhere between Marsand Jupiter, rather than in Earth orbit. This wouldallow the instruments to avoid the dust betweenEarth and Mars that obscures the view.

The six individual telescopes would be joinedeither by long arms or would each be mounted onindividual spacecraft. In the former case, the rigidstructure would rotate to build up the image. In thelatter case, the individual spacecraft would have

their own rocket motors and dance around eachother to build up the image.

SIM mission

The Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) wouldhunt for Earth-sized planets around other stars

and provide new insights into the origin and evo-lution of our galaxy.

A science team for the mission was chosen byNASA November 28, 2000, and the mission isscheduled for launch in 2009.

SIM would be placed into orbit around the Sunon a path that follows Earth's orbit. Light gatheredby its multiple telescopes will be combined andprocessed to yield information that could normallybe obtained only with a much larger telescope.

The mission would also measure the locationsand distances of stars throughout our Milky WayGalaxy, and study other celestial objects.

Solar Systems LikeOurs May Be Common,

Study ShowsBy Robert Roy Britt, Senior Science Writer

posted: 07:02 am ET, 04 January 2001

Researchers have discovered unexpectedamounts of hydrogen gas, critical to the formationof giant planets like Jupiter, circling three nearbystars in dust disks previously thought to be devoidof the stuff.

While hydrogen is the most common sub-stance inside stars and throughout the universe,the finding indicates that hydrogen remains in adust disk, or protoplanetary disk, around a star

longer than thought. This, in turn, means large gasplanets have longer to form and therefore may bemore prevalent than expected.

Coupled with the long-held theories that gasgiants are necessary for the formation of smallerEarth-like planets, the discovery raises intriguingpossibilities about the search for other planets thatmight harbor life.

"The new findings strengthen the likelihood

MOUNT WILSON, CALIF -- A steep and nar-row road shouldered by precipitous drops into

rocky canyons winds from the bright lights of theLos Angeles Basin to the top of Mount Wilson. It's

that a larger fraction of stars form solar systemslike our own, and that some stars near the Sun arestill forming giant planets," said Jack Lissauer, aresearcher at NASA's Ames Research Centerwho was not involved in the study.

Enough hydrogen for six Jupiters

The three stars in the study are relativelyyoung -- between 8 million and 30 million yearsold (our Sun formed nearly 5 billion years ago).Each is less than 260 light-years away (our MilkyWay Galaxy is roughly 100,000 light-yearsacross).

Each of the stars was known to be encircledby a flat disk of dust. These so-called protoplane-tary disks, the leftovers of star birth, are the stuffof which planets are made. But previous studieshad concluded the disks contained very littlehydrogen gas. Researchers assumed that hydro-gen does not hang around in a dust disk for morethan about 5 million years. (The interplanetaryspace in our own solar system is now mostlyhydrogen-free.)

The new study, reported in the Jan. 4 issue ofthe journal Nature, found enough hydrogen gasaround one of the stars to form six Jupiters. Eachof the other two disks had a fraction of the hydro-gen needed to make one Jupiter, but still morethan expected.

Many of the stars in our neighborhood of theMilky Way are at least 10 million to 30 millionyears old. Until now, researchers assumed thesestars could no longer form giant planets, because

their disks would be depleted of hydrogen gas. According to theories of solar system forma-

tion, giant planets are key to allowing the develop-ment of smaller planets in potentially habitableorbits -- not too hot, not too cold. Gas giants, asthe theory goes, also help set up livable condi-tions as they use their gravity to sweep the innersolar system relatively free of life-threateningasteroids and comets.

The researchers involved with the study saidtheir work is "good news, though indirectly, in thesearch for extraterrestrial life," because life as weknow it needs a planet in one of these so-called"Goldilocks" orbits. Clues to our own solar system.

The findings also represent another steptoward fathoming the range of ways in which solarsystems, including our own, come into being andevolve.

"If indeed planet formation is still going on inthese [nearby] systems, they are among the clos-est to the Earth," said Geoffrey Blake, a Caltechresearcher who participated in the study. "Theymay therefore provide unique windows into howplanetary systems are assembled."

Classic explanations of giant-planet formationsay that a core of rock roughly 10 times the massof Earth forms, and then the gravity of this "proto-planet" attracts gas until it becomes the size ofJupiter. But computer models have shown thiswould take several million years -- longer thanhydrogen gas was expected to be available.

"Our new findings are important because theylengthen the time that it is possible to form Jupiter-like planets," Blake told SPACE.com.

Telescope Array toUnlock Secrets from

Duplicitous StarsBy Robert Roy Britt, Senior Science Writer

posted: 07:00 am ET, 17 July 2001

an hours drive that soars up through the smog,past sturdy pine trees and, surprisingly, into someof the best telescopic "seeing" conditions in theworld. It is also a paved path to the past. Some ofthe equipment here has sat unchanged since the1920s when Edwin Hubble used the mountain's100-inch telescope to discover that our universe isexpanding.

Now, eight decades after Hubble ushered in anew era of cosmology, and on the heels of a com-plete shutdown, the Mount Wilson Observatory isalive again and being repositioned for the futureby going back to basics. It is a future expected tounlock fundamental secrets about ordinary stars,objects that have lost some of their "star power" inan era of pretty pictures made by exotic space-based telescopes. Like the one named afterEdwin Hubble.

Under the steady air at Mount Wilson, scien-tists are building an array of telescopes that willcombine to work as one and effectively becomeamong the most powerful stargazing tools everbuilt.

The setup is so complicated that no one per-son understands how it works. It is called theCHARA array, and later this month scientists planto start normal operations as they bring the thirdtelescope in the complex array online. The longestdistance between two of the telescopes, known asthe array's baseline, will be 1,148 feet (350meters), nearly the length of four football fields. Bycomparison, the largest conventional optical tele-scopes do not exceed 36 feet (11 meters).

CHARA is expected therefore to allowastronomers to measure and weigh stars and cal-culate distances to them with a precision not pre-viously possible.

Out of the age of occultations

Other telescopes -- including Hubble,Chandra, Hawaii's Keck and the EuropeanSouthern Observatory's Very Large Telescope --are better equipped to look beyond our Milky Wayto explore distant galaxies or to marvel at super-novae, exoplanets and other enigmatic objects. Ifthose are an astronomer's most elegant powertools, then CHARA could be considered a super-charged slide rule.

And unlike a handful of similar telescopes that

perform diverse tasks, CHARA will be dedicatedto the basic measurement of stars in visible andnear-infrared light. Such measurements have untilnow relied heavily on lunar occultations, a moder-ately reliable method of studying how a star's lightgoes out during the seconds when the Moonchances to pass in front of it.

CHARA (Center for High Angular ResolutionAstronomy) is expected to give significantlyimproved measurements of the mass of stars, acrucial factor in learning what the objects aremade of and how they evolve.

Other research has indirectly measured themass of stars by observing how two stars orbitaround one another in what's called a binary sys-tem. But these observations have relied on notingchanges in the star's light as it moves away fromus, and then toward us, in its orbit.

This Doppler effect, identical to the change insound as an ambulance moves toward and thenaway from you, is an indirect measurement toolthat, again, has only provided reasonably closeestimates.

What CHARA's interferometry can do that theDoppler method and conventional telescopescan't is to actually locate points around theperimeter of a star, thus providing an exact "pic-ture" of a star's diameter. Other methods use astar's luminosity to estimate other parameters.

"If you can resolve these binary stars ... thenyou can directly measure the masses of the twostars as well as the distance to the stars fromEarth," says Harold A. McAlister, a Georgia StateUniversity professor and director of the 14-personCHARA team. "The measure of mass is the mostfundamental parameter scientists would like toknow" about stars.

Duplicitous by nature

Stars are often duplicitous by nature, doublingup just to confuse observers and even, at least inthe past, being perceived as evil. CHARA will helpuntangle stars' deceptive properties.

Roughly half of all the points of light in thenight sky are actually binary star systems, inwhich two stars orbit around a common gravita-tional midpoint. Such systems give off confusinglight signatures that in some cases move in thesky, sometimes sending airliners off course andgenerally confounding attempts to measure their

size, distance, substance and movement.One such binary system was once thought to

be a single star. Its frequent winking gave theancients the creeps, and so they gave the strangeobject the name Algol, meaning Eye of theDemon.

Algol, modern-day astronomers learned, has asmall faint companion star that orbitsaround it, explains Bill Hartkopf of the U.S. NavalObservatory. Every few days the smaller starpasses in front of the big star, making the systemdimmer.

Hartkopf is interested in using CHARA to learnmore about star systems like Algol, as well othersthat appear to actually move around in the sky."Consider a star sitting out there in space all byitself, a perfect directional beacon for a jet to useto plot its course," Hartkopf said. "Unbeknownst tothe pilot, however, the star slowly, imperceptiblymoves -- and not even in a straight line -- enoughto throw the jet off course." The moving beacon,Hartkopf explains, is a bright star accompanied bya faint star. "They're too close together to be seenas two stars," he said. "Instead we see the blend-ed light from both. As the brighter star movesfrom, say, left of the fainter star to above it, then tothe right of it, the center of light of that blendedimage appears to move in a circle."

Hartkopf says CHARA may help answer otherimportant questions:

Do binaries stay together forever? What role does a binary system play in stellar evolution? Do all stars form in pairs?

Recent evidence has shown that current esti-mates of binary systems may be incomplete. Orsome stars may form in pairs and later be forcedapart.

No one person understands it

The technique of combining light from multipletelescopes is called interferometry. Radio tele-scopes have employed it for years, but it is justemerging as a force in optical astronomy. It's allabout making a big deal of small things. "Whenyou want to see a small thing in the sky, you needa big mirror," says Mark Swain, an astronomerand technician at NASA's Jet PropulsionLaboratory who works on the Keck telescope.Keck is also an interferometer but is devoted tohunting for extrasolar planets.

"Interferometers are a cheap way to build abig mirror," he says. "A mirror the size of a footballfield would be tremendously expensive, if evenpossible." CHARA's original budget forecast putthe project at $11.5 million -- a fraction of what itcosts to build and launch a space-based tele-scope. But with the relatively cheap price tagcomes a complex method of putting the light backtogether. Interferometry is a rapidly developingtechnique that requires nanometer precision. Andit is a scheme that is highly complicated. So muchso that nobody claims to be able to boil it down toanything resembling a lay explanation.

"No one person understands it all," says LuRarogiewicz, who worked on a predecessor toCHARA that was dismantled three years ago. "Ittakes a team of fairly specialized people in manydisciplines to put it together and get it to work."McAlister, while giving a quick overview to a groupof journalists visiting the observatory, called thetechnique a "magical process" that "involves a lotof plumbing." The magic is in the mixing.

Imagine starlight coming from a point at theleft edge of a star's disk. The light will travel aslightly longer path to reach one of two tele-scopes. The trick in interferometry is getting thosetwo incoming light sources to meet at one locationwith near-perfect precision -- to well within thelength of a single light wave.

McAlister and his colleagues do this by send-ing the light through vacuum tubes to a centralbuilding, a long, cramped bunker where the magicmixing is done. Inside, each beam of light isbounced between mirrors and delayed as neededuntil they are all exactly cued up to be combined.

As the light waves are put together, they inter-act and produce a series of wave patterns, calledfringes, that are either built up or canceled outdepending on the telescope's baseline.

Instead of conventional pictures, an interfer-ometer produces multiple fringes, mere squiggleson a computer screen, that can be combined todetermine a star's size and shape. But these canbe powerful squiggles.

CHARA's ability will be akin to looking fromNew York, across America and the Pacific Ocean,and spotting a nickel in the middle of Siberia. Inastronomy-speak, that's 200 micro-arcseconds ofresolution.

The array will eventually consist of six tele-scopes, each with a light-collecting mirror that is 1meter in diameter (3 feet). Since 1999, two of the

telescopes have been working, but useful obser-vations require a third, which is expected to comeonline later this month. All six should be opera-tional by early next year, refining accuracy andallowing for quicker observations.

Clear skies above, crud below

On a clear, shirtsleeve-warm evening in earlyJune this year, a full Moon outshines most stars,even high atop Mount Wilson. But those thatremain exhibit a characteristic prized byastronomers: They don't twinkle.

Which is precisely why the site was chosen forthe CHARA array, even though it is less than 20miles from the bright lights and heavy smog ofdowntown Los Angeles. It's the same reason themountain got its first telescope in 1889.

"The prevailing winds bring in air that hasbeen flowing across the Pacific Ocean and,except during storms, the temperature is verysteady and the air becomes very uniform andflows very smoothly," McAlister explains.

"The air is not disrupted until it flows inlandfrom Mount Wilson," he said. "When you observestars from a sight like this, the stars don't twinklemuch. The twinkling is the result of turbulent airdistorting starlight."

The smooth flow of air also traps industrial andauto emissions in an inversion layer, creating thesmog that snuggles against the mountains likedirty cotton.

Mount Wilson's elevation is just over 5,700feet (1,742 meters). "And the inversion layer istypically at 3,000 to 4,000 feet," McAlister said."So all the crud is down there."

Expect surprises

In addition to binary stars, CHARA will studysome of the most massive stars, hot youngobjects known as O- and B-type stars. It will alsotake a look at some lower-mass, cooler stars thathave proved particularly difficult to study by othermeans.

What's known about all these stars is basedheavily on theory, not on observation, McAlistersaid. "These stars blow away a lot of their mass,"he said. "They have very active winds of materialthat they expel out into the environment aroundthem. And so we expect to see features of thosewinds as well."

The CHARA array "should be a very good sys-tem, and it should tell us a great deal about thenewer stars," said Nobel laureate CharlesTownes, who operates a similar but portable inter-ferometer, also atop Mount Wilson, and recentlyused it to learn that some older stars, called redgiants, may be larger than thought.

McAlister said he figures that just like Townes'study of older stars, CHARA's fresh look atyounger stars will yield surprises.

To a lesser extent, the array will also look forJupiter-mass planets in binary star systems,something that is mostly ignored by current plan-et hunters, who typically confine their studies tosingle stars.

"Most of the stars in the universe are not sin-gles, so we shouldn't be ruling out binaries ... asplaces for planets," McAlister said.

CHARA is funded by the National ScienceFoundation, the W.M. Keck Foundation, the Davidand Lucile Packard Foundation, and GeorgiaState University, which will operate it.

On the California mountain from which EdwinHubble discovered that the universe was expand-ing, astronomers have achieved first light with anew infrared camera and made some nifty discov-eries in the process.

Using the 100-inch telescope at the MountWilson Observatory near Pasadena, theastronomers found three previously undetectedfaint stars, each orbiting larger and brighter com-panion stars.

"This is the first time the historic Mount Wilsontelescope has looked at the universe through thisnew infrared eye, and already it is making newdiscoveries," said Jian Ge, assistant professor ofastronomy and astrophysics at Penn State andleader of team that developed the camera andmade the discoveries.

The results do not represent a major scientificfinding -- similar dim stars have been discoveredfrom other observatories. But they "mark thebeginning of a new era in the use of the 100-inchtelescope for discovering very interesting faintobjects in orbit around brighter stars, such asbrown dwarfs, which are neither stars nor plan-ets," said Robert Jastrow, director of the MountWilson Institute.

The findings will be published in the Juneissue of Astrophysical Journal Letters and the Julyissue of the Astronomical Journal.The infrared camera, which detects electromag-netic radiation in the form of heat rather than visi-ble light, has a specially shaped mask that coversthe "pupil" of the camera's eye to allow fainter

companions to be seen around bright objects. "The image resulting from the first use of the

device revealed areas of greater contrast thatallowed us to find one of the faint dwarf stars," Gesaid. "The technique potentially improves contrastin images by more than tenfold compared to cur-rent techniques." (Other telescopes are equippedwith similar coronagraphs, as they are called.)

Future space-based telescopes will likely drawfrom this technology to image Earth-like planetsaround other stars, said David Spergel, PrincetonUniversity researcher who recommended the newapproach to Ge. "Jian's work at Mount Wilson is apathfinder for the Terrestrial Planet Finder beingplanned by NASA."

The dwarf stars are less than one-tenth themass of the Sun and give off a dark-red glow thatis dimmer than our hotter Sun's yellow light. Oneof the stars is about 50 light years from Earth,another is about 27 light years away, and the thirdis at a distance of about 200 light years.Astronomers consider these stars to be nearby inour solar system's corner of the galaxy.

"Our initial conservative estimate is that theseare little very-dark-red dwarf stars," says AbhijitChakraborty, a postdoctoral scholar on Ge's team."Their mass is only about 80 to 100 times that ofJupiter, which itself is a thousand times smallerthan our Sun. They have barely enough mass toburn the hydrogen in their cores, and are close tothe size and luminosity of less-massive brown-dwarf objects, which don't have enough mass toignite into stars at all."

Astronomy Revival: NewDiscoveries from

Historic Mount WilsonBy SPACE.com Staff, posted: 10:31 am ET, 12 June 2002

With a sky-lighting burst of flameand thunder, a Boeing Delta 2 rocketboosted a $1.2 billion infrared tele-scope into space early today, a "greatobservatory" designed to detect thefeeble glow of infant planets, starsand galaxies in the making.

In so doing, NASA's SpaceInfrared Telescope Facility, or SIRTF(pronounced SIR-tiff), will comple-ment the work of the Hubble SpaceTelescope and the Chandra X-rayObservatory while extending human-ity's vision into a realm that, until now,has been shrouded in dusty mystery.

"The technical capability ofSIRTF will most likely lead to discov-eries that no one could predict beforethe start of the mission," Lia LaPiana, program manager at NASAheadquarters in Washington, said earlier this year."SIRTF will significantly increase our understand-ing of the Universe and will probably re-writeastronomy textbooks just like the Hubble SpaceTelescope did."

Once safely in orbit around the sun, its instru-ments activated, checked out and chilled to a fewdegrees above absolute zero - a process that willtake up to three months to complete - SIRTF willbe the most powerful space-based infrared obser-vatory ever built.

So sensitive, in fact, it would be capable ofdetecting the pulse from a TV remote control"clicker" from a distance of 10,000 miles.

"SIRTF will be a factor of a hundred to a mil-lion times more capable than any previous facilityfor infrared astronomy," said Michael Werner,SIRTF project scientist at the Jet PropulsionLaboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "I'm fond of saying

that SIRTF doesn't just meet our requirements, itexceeds our requirements. It's going to be very,very exciting over the next months and years."

Running four-and-a-half months late becauseof booster issues and the launchings of two Marsrovers this summer, SIRTF's Delta 2 finally roaredto life at 1:35:39 a.m. EDT (0535:39 GMT)Monday, swiftly climbing away from pad 17B atthe Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The fiery exhaust from the vehicle's powerfulDelta 3-class solid-fuel boosters lighted up thenight sky for miles around, putting on a spectacu-lar show for area night owls. Fifty minutes later,after two firings by the Delta 2's second stagemotor, SIRTF was released into an orbit aroundthe sun designed to maximize the spacecraft's sci-ence output.

Engineers were not initially able to acquiretelemetry from the spacecraft as it sailed highabove Australia, causing a few tense moments fol-

300th Delta Rocket Launches New Window on Universe

BY WILLIAM HARWOODSTORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION

Posted: August 25, 2003

An artist's concept of SIRTF. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech

lowing SIRTF's separation from the Delta 2's sec-ond stage. But as it turned out, all was well.

"I have no nails left," joked project managerDavid Gallagher. "We had a little extra delay thereacquiring (telemetry) from Canberra. We havedone a preliminary assessment of the subsystemsof the observatory and everything looks to begood. We are pointing where we should be.

"We believe, this is very preliminary, the causeof the delay was that the signal was too strong. ...We are getting telemetry down now and every-thing looks good."

Launch came two full decades after the proj-ect first got underway with an official "announce-ment of opportunity" from NASA.

"We were all foolish enough not to notice itwas actually Friday, May 13," said George Rieke,a principal investigator from the University ofArizona. "Somehow we have overcome, after twodecades, the bad aura that came with that partic-ular date."

The victim of budget cuts and resultingredesigns, SIRTF survived primarily due to theinnovation and determination of the science teamand the engineers charged with turning the dreaminto reality.

"We used to count the time to SIRTF's launchin decades," Rieke joked. "If we'd known howmany decades, we probably would have quit."

The key was figuring out how to reduce theweight of the telescope to permit launch on a low-cost Delta while maintaining the same mirror size,the same orbital lifetime and the same capabilityto chill the observatory's instruments to within fivedegrees of absolute zero. The solution was as ele-gant as it was simple.

Instead of encapsulating the telescope in amassive liquid helium dewar, or thermos, like ear-lier, more modest infrared telescopes, engineersdecided to launch SIRTF at room temperature.Once in space, a smaller dewar holding 95 gallonsof liquid helium will begin cooling the optical sys-tem and instrument detectors.

But that alone was not enough. To achieve theultra-low temperatures required to detect thefaintest targets, SIRTF was redesigned to operatein the shade of a single fixed solar panel that willalways remain pointed face on to the sun.

Finally, the SIRTF designers changed the mis-sion profile, putting the telescope in an orbitaround the sun instead of Earth, far enough awayto eliminate infrared emissions from the planet or

the moon that otherwise could wash out the fee-ble radiation from deep space.

All of that, plus the addition of the largest,most sensitive digital detectors ever built for aninfrared telescope, represents "a great advance-ment in the state of the art for infrared observato-ries," Gallagher said earlier this year.

SIRTF is equipped with three science instru-ments: A powerful CCD camera sensitive to short-er infrared wavelengths, a light-splitting spectro-graph to study the chemical composition of thetelescope's targets and a multi-band photometerthat will gather pictures and spectrographic dataat longer wavelengths.

"The only real downside to this warm-launcharchitecture is it hasn't been done before,"Gallagher said. "So this is a first of a kind demon-stration of that. I believe after it's successful, thiswill become the way you do infrared missions. Bynot having to cool such a large volume, the masssavings, and therefore cost savings, are quiteextraordinary."

Slowly falling behind Earth in a slightly longerorbit around the sun, SIRTF will focus on the faintheat emitted by stars and planets in the process ofcoalescing from swirling clouds of dust and gas.The 1,900-pound observatory also will probe thechemical composition of enigmatic brown dwarfs,would-be suns that lack sufficient mass to triggernuclear ignition, and peer through interveningclouds of dust to map the hidden heart of the MilkyWay.

Closer to home, SIRTF's chilled 33.5-inch mir-ror and a trio of sensitive detectors promise togive astronomers an unprecedented view of theouter reaches of our own solar system, whereuncounted comets and icy chunks of debris slow-ly swarm about the faint flicker of the distant sun.

Of more cosmological significance, SIRTF willpeer into the depths of space and time, capturingthe faint glow of the first infant galaxies emergingin the aftermath of the big bang as well as emis-sions from the cooler outer regions of black hole-powered quasars.

"SIRTF will allow us to probe the youngUniverse in ways which compliment the workthat's been done to date with Hubble and withChandra, the other great observatories," saidGarth Illingworth of the University of California-Santa Cruz. "We're looking now to try and shedlight on the mystery of galaxies, when they wereborn, how they were assembled and how they've

grown over the life of the Universe." It's a tall order. Figuring out how galaxies

evolved in the aftermath of the big bang birth ofthe cosmos "is really and truly one of the greatquests of the next decade," Illingworth said.

SIRTF is the fourth and final member ofNASA's "Great Observatories" program, followingthe Hubble Space Telescope, the now-defunctCompton Gamma Ray Observatory and therecently launched Chandra X-ray Observatory.

The idea was to build a fleet of space-basedtelescopes sensitive to different regions of theelectromagnetic spectrum because "many cosmicobjects produce radiation over a wide range ofwavelengths," said NASA science chief Ed Weiler."It's important to get the whole picture."

The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory,which ended its mission in 2000, was built to studyextremely violent processes, catastrophic stellardetonations and collisions generating tempera-tures greater than 1.8 billion degrees Fahrenheit.

Chandra studies slightly less powerful million-degree X-ray processes like the enormous heat-ing of gas and dust sucked into ravenous blackholes. The Hubble Space Telescope is primarily avisible-light instrument, sensitive to the radiationemitted by stars, galaxies and interactions thatgenerate temperatures measured in the thou-sands of degrees.

SIRTF is optimized to capture infrared emis-sions from objects and processes that generatetemperatures of a few hundred degrees or less.

"It's extremely difficult to live and work inspace," says psychologist Albert Harrison, whocompares a stint onboard the International SpaceStation to "being in a cramped house with trashpiling up." While the wobbly legs of an astronautjust returned to Earth may be the most obviousside-effect of a year-long space mission, simplygetting along with other astronauts for months at atime may be even harder.

According to Harrison, author of Spacefaring:The Human Dimension, "One of the things thatthe Russians have done with tremendous skill anddaring is to build a record of increasingly longspace flights. Our own astronauts gained experi-ence on Skylab and later on Mir and the ISS." Asa result, "the people that go up into space havebeen able to get along with one another. Theywork out patterns of mutual existence, living underconditions where they're cramped together." Inorbit 240 miles above the Earth's surface, astro-nauts who tire of being in close quarters have"very little opportunity to get away."

And in their celestial home away from home,there's little room for solitude. Long gone are the

days of the Mercury space capsules, with room foronly one astronaut on missions measured inhours. But like their predecessors, Harrison says,today's "astronauts still have the 'Right Stuff,' it'sjust that it's redefined a little bit."

"The 'Right Stuff' has sort of expanded," inHarrison's view. Modern astronauts are "still high-ly competent and motivated and they're still cool.Today they don't have to be fighter pilots withgreat kill ratios ... but they do have to be able toget along with one another in ways that weren'trequired in the 1960s." The challenges of long-term amity can become even more difficult whenastronauts come from cultures with different waysof relating to others. "Today's international crews,"says Harrison, "raise the complexity. A lot of effortgoes into ensuring that international crews canfunction comfortably."

The Greatest Obstacle

But interpersonal strife is far from the worstthreat to a stable space program. Commenting onthe space program in the United States, Harrison

Barriers to Space: And WhyThey Should Be Overcome

By Douglas Vakoch, Special to SPACE.composted: 07:00 am ET,11 September 2003

says if he had "to pick one problem which isgreater than others, I think it's national will, ourdesire to go to space, to provide the political infra-structure and the economic support to realize thatdream."

Harrison identifies three critical ingredients toa successful space program: technology, money,and commitment. "We do have the technology,and if we choose to spend it, we do have themoney." But in recent years, he says, Americahasn't maintained a commitment to a strong pres-ence in space.

Though the Russians and the Chinese mayhave fewer resources, Harrison could well imag-ine either country soon surpassing the UnitedStates in space. "The Russians are a little short oncash, the Chinese are a little short on technology,but they both seem to be very determined, and it'squite possible that one day within the next fiveyears or so-somewhere around 2007, 2008 wewill see a Russian space station with tourists anda Chinese manufacturing facility."

Risky Business

"We're all happy to see the smiling faces andoccasional clowning around of astronauts, on theshuttle or in the space station," Harrison says, buthe warns, "We should never lose sight of exactlyhow dangerous and how demanding and howexacting space travel is."

Six months ago, the world was reminded ofthese dangers when the Columbia space shuttleexploded. Such risks, Harrison says, can never beeliminated completely. "The reality is that whenev-er we go where people have not gone before,wherever we try something new, there's a certainlevel of risk. No, we don't want people to die, theydon't want to die, we do everything we can to keepthem alive, they do everything they can to stayalive, but it is a cost of doing this kind of busi-ness."

Harrison was particularly struck by the una-nimity of those closest to the Columbia astronautsin calling for continued exploration. "The familiesof the astronauts that died, the other astronauts,NASA officials, the greater Johnson space com-munity, the greater NASA community, all cameforward and said, 'This is very terrible, it's verysad, but we want space exploration to continue.This is what they would have wanted.'"

Worth the Cost

In light of all these risks, is space explorationreally worth it? For some, the appeal of space iseconomic, though Harrison advises any potentialinvestors to take a very long-term view. Whilemanufacturing opportunities in zero-gravity orasteroid mining may some day be a paying propo-sition, Harrison warns that "it's a long way fromwhere we are now until you start getting intereston the money that you put into this."

Harrison also emphasizes the knowledge thatcan be gained through space faring: "We maketremendous advances in science as a result of ourexploration of space." While much of this knowl-edge is about outer space, some has a deeper,inner significance. After looking down on our plan-et from orbit, where political boundaries aren't evi-dent, some astronauts have reported a deeperunderstanding of the interconnectedness of all lifeon Earth. As Harrison summarizes their experi-ence, "It's one planet, one people."

Though a more holistic view of Earth may helpus survive as a species, Harrison suggests it maynot be enough. Instead, he says that space travelmight help us insure that humankind will continueto exist, even in the face of widespread disasteron our home world: "As soon as we're able tobecome a two planet species, as soon as we'renot limited to Planet Earth, we can protect our-selves, or we can at least protect the humanfuture, from any global level catastrophe or extinc-tion level event."

In spite of the obstacles to space travel,Harrison remains optimistic: "I see a long, toughroad, to tell you the truth, but I think that we'lleventually get there ... that we'll get back to theMoon, we'll get to Mars.""If we don't run out of money, if we don't lose thepractical know-how that we've built up, I think thatour eventual movement into space is inevitable."

Quick Bites

The Galileo spacecraft will end its missionSeptember 21, 2003 with a planned impact intoJupiter. Launched in 1989, Galileo has beenexploring Jupiter and its moons since December1995.

NASA announced the selection of the"Phoenix" mission for launch in 2007 as what is

hoped will be the first in a new line of "Scout" mis-sions in the agency's Mars Exploration Program.Press Release from the Jet Propulsion Lab.[August 4, 2003.]

New count on planetary moons . . .

Jupiter --- forty and counting . . . . . newest names: Autonoe, Thyone, Hermippe, Aitne, Euerydome, Euanthe, Erporie,Orthosie, Sponde, Kale, Pasithee. Two moons have notyet been named.

Saturn --- thirty and counting . . . . . newest names: Ymir, Paaliaq, Tarvos, Ijiraq, Suttung,Kivnig, Mundilfori, Albiorix, Skadi, Erriapo, Siarnaq, Thrym

Uranus --- twenty-one and counting . . . . . newest name: Trinculo

Neptune --- eleven and counting . . . . . . The three newest moons have not yet been named.

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